| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: set for another, they have met, or may meet, with a violent and
sudden death. But a tragic ending of this kind, though touched by
Hamlet's humour with something of the surprise and justice of
comedy, is really not for such as they. They never die. Horatio,
who in order to 'report Hamlet and his cause aright to the
unsatisfied,'
'Absents him from felicity a while,
And in this harsh world draws his breath in pain,'
dies, but Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are as immortal as Angelo
and Tartuffe, and should rank with them. They are what modern life
has contributed to the antique ideal of friendship. He who writes
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: about it. It was a noble landscape, and my eyes, which had grown
used to the narrow inspection of a shaded roadside, could hardly
take it in.
"Why, it's the upper bay," said Mrs. Todd. "You can see 'way
over into the town of Fessenden. Those farms 'way over there are
all in Fessenden. Mother used to have a sister that lived up that
shore. If we started as early's we could on a summer mornin', we
couldn't get to her place from Green Island till late afternoon,
even with a fair, steady breeze, and you had to strike the time
just right so as to fetch up 'long o' the tide and land near the
flood. 'Twas ticklish business, an' we didn't visit back an' forth
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: "Not now," said Phil, patting his shoulder, with imperturbable
good-nature. "Our beloved has cured me of that. He who has won
the pearl dives no more."
"Do not let us speak of Hope," said Harry. "Everything that
you have been asserting Hope's daily life disproves."
"That may be," answered Malbone, heartily. "But, Hal, I never
flirted; I always despised it. It was always a grande passion
with me, or what I took for such. I loved to be loved, I
suppose; and there was always something new and fascinating to
be explored in a human heart, that is, a woman's."
"Some new temple to profane?" asked Hal severely.
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