| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: "very little to set things in order--"
She dared not proceed; she felt that every word would be a reproof,
and she did not wish to mar the happiness with which this meeting was
inundating her soul.
"It is Hortense who has brought me here," said Hulot. "That child may
do us far more harm by her hasty proceeding than my absurd passion for
Valerie has ever done. But we will discuss all this to-morrow morning.
Hortense is asleep, Mariette tells me; we will not disturb her."
"Yes," said Madame Hulot, suddenly plunged into the depths of grief.
She understood that the Baron's return was prompted not so much by the
wish to see his family as by some ulterior interest.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: treacheries it incited men of yore, the imagination trembles to
conceive; for years and years it has faithfully served the powers
of hell; enough, I say, of blood, enough of disgrace, enough of
broken lives and friendships; all things come to an end, the evil
like the good; pestilence as well as beautiful music; and as for
this diamond, God forgive me if I do wrong, but its empire ends to-
night."
The Prince made a sudden movement with his hand, and the jewel,
describing an arc of light, dived with a splash into the flowing
river.
"Amen," said Florizel with gravity. "I have slain a cockatrice!"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: struggle with something much greater than yourself; it is not the
laborious absorbing practice of an art whose ultimate result
remains on the knees of the gods. It is not an individual,
temperamental achievement, but simply the skilled use of a captured
force, merely another step forward upon the way of universal
conquest.
IX.
Every passage of a ship of yesterday, whose yards were braced round
eagerly the very moment the pilot, with his pockets full of
letters, had got over the side, was like a race - a race against
time, against an ideal standard of achievement outstripping the
The Mirror of the Sea |
