| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: lived to enjoy an honorable and prosperous career,
but he never forgot that night and the part he had
played in one of the poignant and happy hours of
his sister's life.
Day and night a great silence reigned in the Mis-
sion valley, broken only by the hoot of the owl, the
singing of birds, the flight of horses across the
plain. Even the low huddle of Mission buildings
and the few homes beyond looked an anomaly in
that vast quiet valley asleep and unknown for so
many centuries in the wide embrace of the hills. Its
Rezanov |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: tears. "Do not let us weep," said the talking man, Lauati. "We
have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the
invincible strangers." The departing king bequeathed the care of
his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console him
with the commodore's promises, he shook his head, and declared his
assurance that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to
death. About two o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to
the Catholic mission by the back of the town; and Malietoa
proceeded by the beach road to the German naval hospital, where he
was received (as he owns, with perfect civility) by Brandeis.
About three, Becker brought him forth again. As they went to the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: quarts into the pint pots. "If a thing can be done in one line
instead of two," he says, "I try to do it."
Some parts of this conclusion are evidently added by M. Rabou, and
are not derived from Balzac at all,--especially the unnecessary
reincarnation of Vautrin. There is no trace of the master's hand
here. The character is made so silly and puerile, and is so out of
keeping with Balzac's strong portrait, which never weakens, that
the translator has thought best, in justice to Vautrin, to omit
all that is not absolutely necessary to connect the story.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
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