| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: glory to be looked for there than from our luckless canvases!"
Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures were
exhibited. The /Interior/ made a revolution in painting. It gave birth
to the pictures of genre which pour into all our exhibitions in such
prodigious quantity that they might be supposed to be produced by
machinery. As to the portrait, few artists have forgotten that
lifelike work; and the public, which as a body is sometimes
discerning, awarded it the crown which Girodet himself had hung over
it. The two pictures were surrounded by a vast throng. They fought for
places, as women say. Speculators and moneyed men would have covered
the canvas with double napoleons, but the artist obstinately refused
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: such training ought to live as long as the cedars of Lebanon, and
famous trees they are.'
" 'Then is the Count actually dying?' I asked.
" 'That is possible,' said Gobseck; 'the winding up of his estate will
be a juicy bit of business for you.'
"I looked at my man, and said, by way of sounding him:
" 'Just explain to me how it is that we, the Count and I, are the only
men in whom you take an interest?'
" 'Because you are the only two who have trusted me without
finessing,' he said.
"Although this answer warranted my belief that Gobseck would act
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: "Now stand thou back!" cried one of the men-at-arms whom Little John pushed
with his elbows.
"Now stand thou back thine own self," quoth Little John, and straightway smote
the man a buffet beside his head that felled him as a butcher fells an ox,
and then he leaped to the cart where Stutely sat.
"I pray thee take leave of thy friends ere thou diest, Will,"
quoth he, "or maybe I will die with thee if thou must die,
for I could never have better company." Then with one stroke
he cut the bonds that bound the other's arms and legs,
and Stutely leaped straightway from the cart.
"Now as I live," cried the Sheriff, "yon varlet I know right well
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
