| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: it resisted all their efforts. Evidently the woman who had given that
mirror to the temple must have regretted the giving. She had not presented
her offering with all her heart; and therefore her selfish soul, remaining
attached to the mirror, kept it hard and cold in the midst of the furnace.
Of course everybody heard of the matter, and everybody soon knew whose
mirror it was that would not melt. And because of this public exposure of
her secret fault, the poor woman became very much ashamed and very angry.
And as she could not bear the shame, she drowned herself, after having
written a farewell letter containing these words:--
"When I am dead, it will not be difficult to melt the mirror and to cast
the bell. But, to the person who breaks that bell by ringing it, great
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: On the marble top of the chest of drawers was a costly malachite
tray, with a dozen coffee cups magnificently painted and made, no
doubt, at Sevres. On the chimney shelf stood the omnipresent
Empire clock: a warrior driving the four horses of a chariot,
whose wheel bore the numbers of the hours on its spokes. The
tapers in the tall candlesticks were yellow with smoke, and at
each corner of the shelf stood a porcelain vase crowned with
artificial flowers full of dust and stuck into moss.
In the middle of the room Hippolyte remarked a card-table ready
for play, with new packs of cards. For an observer there was
something heartrending in the sight of this misery painted up
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: lost at least a hundred men, and we"--he added, screwing up his right
cheek and winking by way of a smile, "have lost only sixty. God's
thunder! I don't understand that sort of speculation. The scoundrels
needn't have attacked us; we might just as well have been allowed to
pass like letters through the post--No, I don't see what good it has
done them to bullet-hole our men," he added, with a sad shake of his
head toward the carts. "Perhaps they only intended to say good-day to
us."
"But they carried off our recruits, commander," said Merle.
"The recruits could have skipped like frogs into the woods at any
time, and we should never have gone after them, especially if those
The Chouans |
