| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: francs a year, husband formerly receiver-general of the department of
Montenotte." So saying, the Practical man, rotund and fat and usually
dressed in black, will project his lower lip and wrap it over the
upper, nodding his head as if to add: "Solid people, those; nothing to
be said against them." Ask no further; Practical men settle
everybody's status by figures, incomes, or solid acres,--a phrase of
their lexicon.
Turn to the right, and put the same question to that other man, who
belongs to the species Lounger. "Madame Firmiani?" he says; "yes, yes,
I know her well; I go to her parties; receives Wednesdays; highly
creditable house."--Madame Firmiani is metamorphosed into a house! but
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: walk at the eleventh hour, or four o'clock in the afternoon, too
late to redeem the day, when the shades of night were already
beginning to be mingled with the daylight, have felt as if I had
committed some sin to be atoned for,--I confess that I am
astonished at the power of endurance, to say nothing of the moral
insensibility, of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops
and offices the whole day for weeks and months, aye, and years
almost together. I know not what manner of stuff they are
of--sitting there now at three o'clock in the afternoon, as if it
were three o'clock in the morning. Bonaparte may talk of the
three-o'clock-in-the-morning courage, but it is nothing to the
Walking |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: had the plague, and why should not she have it as well as he? She was
frighted enough before, being also young with child; but when she
heard him say he had the plague, she screamed out and fell down into
a swoon, or in a fit, which, though she recovered a little, yet killed her
in a very few days; and I never heard whether she had the plague or no.
Another infected person came and knocked at the door of a citizen's
house where they knew him very well; the servant let him in, and
being told the master of the house was above, he ran up and came into
the room to them as the whole family was at supper. They began to
rise up, a little surprised, not knowing what the matter was; but he bid
them sit still, he only came to take his leave of them. They asked him,
A Journal of the Plague Year |
