| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: volume, and indeed are, as I may call them, whole volumes of
themselves, viz.: 1. The life of her governess, as she calls her,
who had run through, it seems, in a few years, all the eminent
degrees of a gentlewoman, a whore, and a bawd; a midwife
and a midwife-keeper, as they are called; a pawnbroker, a
childtaker, a receiver of thieves, and of thieves' purchase,
that is to say, of stolen goods; and in a word, herself a thief,
a breeder up of thieves and the like, and yet at last a penitent.
The second is the life of her transported husband, a highwayman,
who it seems, lived a twelve years' life of successful villainy
upon the road, and even at last came off so well as to be a
Moll Flanders |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: to break her nails; the two stone lions at her back seemed to bite her
shoulders and join their voices to hers.
Antipas followed her example; and priests, soldiers, and Pharisees
cried aloud together for vengeance, echoed by the rest of the
gathering, who were indignant that a mere slave should dare to delay
their pleasures.
Again Mannaeus left the hall, covering his face with his hands.
The guests found the second delay longer than the first. It seemed
tedious to every one.
Presently a sound of footsteps was heard in the corridor without; then
silence fell again. The suspense was becoming intolerable.
Herodias |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: thy back and lay it upon mine? If it be good to be king, keep
the good to thy self: but, if it be a stone of stumbling and rock
of offence to thy soul, why put it in my pathway and seek to trip
me up?" When Ioasaph perceived that he spake thus, and that his
purpose was fixed, he ceased from communing with him. And now,
at about the dead of night, he wrote his people a letter, full of
much wisdom, expounding to them all godliness; telling them what
they should think concerning God, what life, what hymns and what
thanksgiving they should offer unto him. Next, he charged them
to receive none other than Barachias to be ruler of the kingdom.
Then left he in his bed-chamber the roll containing his letter,
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