| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: I believe, for Louis XVIII., then on the throne, in which the
most difficult problem of the sartorial art had been solved by a
tailor who ought to be immortal. That artist certainly understood
the art of compromise, which was the moving genius of that period
of shifting politics. Is it not a rare merit to be able to take
the measure of the time? This coat, which the young men of the
present day may conceive to be fabulous, was neither civil nor
military, and might pass for civil or military by turns. Fleurs-
de-lis were embroidered on the lapels of the back skirts. The
gilt buttons also bore fleurs-de-lis; on the shoulders a pair of
straps cried out for useless epaulettes; these military
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: of their temperament. To get the best and truest effect from the
infinitely varying moods of sky and sea, not pictorially, but in
the spirit of their calling, was their vocation, one and all; and
they recognised this with as much sincerity, and drew as much
inspiration from this reality, as any man who ever put brush to
canvas. The diversity of temperaments was immense amongst those
masters of the fine art.
Some of them were like Royal Academicians of a certain kind. They
never startled you by a touch of originality, by a fresh audacity
of inspiration. They were safe, very safe. They went about
solemnly in the assurance of their consecrated and empty
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: Against an army sailing through the clouds neither walls,
mountains, nor seas could afford security. A flight of northern
savages might hover in the wind and light with irresistible
violence upon the capital of a fruitful reason. Even this valley,
the retreat of princes, the abode of happiness, might be violated
by the sudden descent of some of the naked nations that swarm on
the coast of the southern sea!"
The Prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not
wholly hopeless of success. He visited the work from time to time,
observed its progress, and remarked many ingenious contrivances to
facilitate motion and unite levity with strength. The artist was
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