| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: the room; she asks me to say she would have written had she been
well enough, and hopes to do it still. - Accept the best wishes of
your admirer,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Letter: TO MISS ADELAIDE BOODLE
[VAILIMA, MAY 1891.]
MY DEAR ADELAIDE, - I will own you just did manage to tread on my
gouty toe; and I beg to assure you with most people I should simply
have turned away and said no more. My cudgelling was therefore in
the nature of a caress or testimonial.
God forbid, I should seem to judge for you on such a point; it was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: as sincerely attached to me as you say you are, you will put me face
to face with him to-morrow."
"You mean that you wish to explain to him your plan for the reform of
the service?"
Rabourdin bowed.
"Well, then, trust the papers with me,--your memoranda, all the
documents. I promise you that he shall sit up all night and examine
them."
"Let us go to him, then!" cried Rabourdin, eagerly; "six years' toil
certainly deserves two or three hours attention from the king's
minister, who will be forced to recognize, if he does not applaud,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: vexed, which rob me of his sight; but to daylight and the sun I owe
eternal thanks, for they restore him to me, my heart's joy,
Cleinias.[24]
[20] Or, "beautiful and good."
[21] Or, "whose fair face draws me." Was Cleinias there as a "muta
persona"? Hardly, in spite of {nun}. It is the image of him which
is present to the mind's eye.
[22] Lit. "being beautiful"; but there is a touch of bombast infused
into the speech by the artist. Cf. the speech of Callias ("Hell."
VI. iii. 3) and, for the humour, "Cyrop." passim.
[23] See Cobet, "Pros. Xen." p. 59. Cf. "Mem." I. iii. 8.
The Symposium |
