| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: dominated Jerusalem. The tetrarch turned his gaze from it to
contemplate the palms of Jericho on his right; and his thoughts dwelt
upon other cities of his beloved Galilee,--Capernaum, Endor, Nazareth,
Tiberias--whither it might be he would never return.
The Jordan wound its way through the arid plains that met his gaze;
white and glittering under the clear sky, it dazzled the eye like snow
in the rays of the sun.
The Dead Sea now looked like a sheet of lapis-lazuli; and at its
southern extremity, on the coast of Yemen, Antipas recognised clearly
what at first he had been able only dimly to perceive. Several tents
could now be plainly seen; men carrying spears were moving about among
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: he, `and the fellow was so enchanted with her looks that he at
once invited her to accompany him to his country seat, where he
is gone to pass some days. As I plainly perceived,' said
Lescaut, `the advantage it may be to you, I took care to let him
know that she had lately experienced very considerable losses;
and I so piqued his generosity that he began by giving her four
hundred crowns. I told him that was well enough for a
commencement, but that my sister would have, for the future, many
demands for money; that she had the charge of a young brother,
who had been thrown upon her hands since the death of our
parents; and that, if he wished to prove himself worthy of her
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: [35] Al. "supreme content, the quintessential bliss, is quite unknown
to him."
The tender service of the proudest-souled of women, wifely rendered,
how superlatively charming![36] and by contrast, how little welcome is
such ministration where the wife is but a slave--when present, barely
noticed; or if lacking, what fell pains and passions will it not
engender!
[36] Or, "the gentle ministrations of loftiest-thoughted women and
fair wives possess a charm past telling, but from slaves, if
tendered, the reverse of welcome, or if not forthcoming . . ."
And if we come to masculine attachments, still more than in those
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