| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: window upon this porch. It could get us so easily that
way!"
"Shut up, you fool!" whispered one of the two new-
comers. "It might hear you." The girl subsided into si-
lence.
There was no sound from the hallway.
"I reckon you croaked IT," suggested the second new-
comer, hopefully; but, as though the THING without
had heard and understood, the clanking of the chain
recommenced at once; but now it was retreating along
the hallway, and soon they heard it descending the
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: all the plans that are made and the plots that are woven about it! Let
us leave these details, nauseating in the nature of them; but perhaps
they may have given you some insight into all that this husband and
wife endured; perhaps too they may unveil much that is passing in
secret in other houses.
"For two months the Comte de Restaud lay on his bed, alone, and
resigned to his fate. Mortal disease was slowly sapping the strength
of mind and body. Unaccountable and grotesque sick fancies preyed upon
him; he would not suffer them to set his room in order, no one could
nurse him, he would not even allow them to make his bed. All his
surroundings bore the marks of this last degree of apathy, the
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: a prompt performance of his promise. He told us, you recollect, if we
would dine with him, he would give us an exhibition of his wisdom.
To which challenge Callias: That I will readily, but you on your side,
one and all, must propound some virtue of which you claim to have the
knowledge.
Socrates replied: At any rate, not one of us will have the least
objection to declaring what particular thing he claims to know as best
worth having.
Agreed (proceeded Callias); and for my part I proclaim at once what I
am proudest of. My firm belief is, I have got the gift to make my
fellow-mortals better.
The Symposium |
