| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: happy death.
"You, who have so fully understood me, may I ask one thing more of
you,--superfluous request, perhaps, the fulfilment of a woman's
fancy, the prayer of a jealousy we all must feel,--I pray you to
burn all that especially belonged to /us/, destroy our chamber,
annihilate all that is a memory of our happiness.
"Once more, farewell,--the last farewell! It is all love, and so
will be my parting thought, my parting breath."
When Jules had read that letter there came into his heart one of those
wild frenzies of which it is impossible to describe the awful anguish.
All sorrows are individual; their effects are not subjected to any
Ferragus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: poem in which he described the entertainment of Heracles, who was a
connexion of the family, setting forth how in virtue of this relationship
he was hospitably received by an ancestor of Lysis; this ancestor was
himself begotten of Zeus by the daughter of the founder of the deme. And
these are the sort of old wives' tales which he sings and recites to us,
and we are obliged to listen to him.
When I heard this, I said: O ridiculous Hippothales! how can you be making
and singing hymns in honour of yourself before you have won?
But my songs and verses, he said, are not in honour of myself, Socrates.
You think not? I said.
Nay, but what do you think? he replied.
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: with a ribbon of her grey bodice. She recovered in an instant, and
threw up entrenchments against the attack she saw he was about to make.
"You exaggerate, I trust," said she. "Your forebodings will be proved
groundless. You will return safe and sound from this venture, as indeed
I hope you may.
That was his cue. "You hope it?" he cried, arresting his step, turning,
and imprisoning her left hand in his right. "You hope it? Ah, if you
hope for my return, return I will; but unless I know that you will have
some welcome for me such as I desire from you, I think..." his voice
quivered cleverly, "I think, perhaps, it were well if... if my
forebodings were not as groundless as you say they are. Tell me, Ruth..."
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