| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: absurdities to catch fools? But now, dearest son, if thou hast
any regard for me thy father, bid a long farewell to these
longwinded follies, and come sacrifice to the gracious gods, and
let us propitiate them with hecatombs and drink-offerings, that
they may grant thee pardon for thy fall; for they be able and
strong to bless and to punish. And wouldst thou have an example
of that which I say? Behold us, who by them have been advanced
to this honour, repaying them for their kindness by honouring
their worshippers and chastising the runagates."
Now when the king had ended all this idle parleying, gainsaying
and slandering of our religion, and belauding and praising of his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: fact - I would almost say of an alarming fact."
"I need not say that all my endeavours shall be directed to that
end," Mr Verloc said, with convinced modulations in his
conversational husky tone. But the sense of being blinked at
watchfully behind the blind glitter of these eye-glasses on the
other side of the table disconcerted him. He stopped short with a
gesture of absolute devotion. The useful, hard-working, if obscure
member of the Embassy had an air of being impressed by some newly-
born thought.
"You are very corpulent," he said.
This observation, really of a psychological nature, and advanced
The Secret Agent |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: when her proposal seemed that of a liberating angel. The fortune and
honor of the merchant, momentarily compromised, required a prompt and
secret succor. La Marana made over to the husband the whole sum she
had obtained of the father for Juana's "dot," requiring neither
acknowledgment nor interest. According to her own code of honor, a
contract, a trust, was a thing of the heart, and God its supreme
judge. After stating the miseries of her position to Dona Lagounia,
she confided her daughter and her daughter's fortune to the fine old
Spanish honor, pure and spotless, which filled the precincts of that
ancient house. Dona Lagounia had no child, and she was only too happy
to obtain one to nurture. The mother then parted from her Juana,
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