| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: obliging enough to risk two thousand francs for an unknown writer, you
will not find a publisher's clerk that will trouble himself to look
through your screed. Now that I have read it I can point out a good
many slips in grammar. You have put observer for faire observer and
malgre que. Malgre is a preposition, and requires an object."
Lucien appeared to be humiliated.
"When I see you again, you will have lost a hundred francs," he added.
"I shall only give a hundred crowns."
With that he rose and took his leave. On the threshold he said, "If
you had not something in you, and a future before you; if I did not
take an interest in studious youth, I should not have made you such a
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: the boards of the schoolroom floor, and, having carefully packed
all the books between the joists, had the boards nailed down again.
Little recked he how many rats and mice made their nests there;
he was bound to account some day for every single volume,
and he saw no way so safe as rigid imprisonment.
The late Sir Thomas Phillipps, of Middle Hill, was a remarkable instance
of a bibliotaph. He bought bibliographical treasures simply to bury them.
His mansion was crammed with books; he purchased whole libraries,
and never even saw what he had bought. Among some of his purchases
was the first book printed in the English language, "The Recuyell
of the Histories of Troye," translated and printed by William Caxton,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: partitions of the ship; the night was, therefore, spent in the
most unpleasant reflections upon the condition of the people
on the beacon, especially in the prospect of the tender being
driven from her moorings. But, even in such a case, it
afforded some consolation that the stability of the fabric was
never doubted, and that the boats of the floating light were
at no great distance, and ready to render the people on the
rock the earliest assistance which the weather would permit.
The writer's cabin being in the sternmost part of the ship,
which had what sailors term a good entry, or was sharp built,
the sea, as before noticed, struck her counter with so much
|
