| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: give my news to Scott, I trust he is better; give him my warm
regards. To you we all send all kinds of things, and I am the
absentee Squire,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Letter: TO CHARLES BAXTER
HONOLULU, APRIL 1889.
MY DEAR CHARLES, - As usual, your letter is as good as a cordial,
and I thank you for it, and all your care, kindness, and generous
and thoughtful friendship, from my heart. I was truly glad to hear
a word of Colvin, whose long silence has terrified me; and glad to
hear that you condoned the notion of my staying longer in the South
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: never has to say, "I am going to the Chamber." I alone in the house
have sixteen hours for meditation. My father is absorbed in public
business and his own amusements; my mother, too, is never at leisure;
no member of the household practises self-examination, they are
constantly in company, and have hardly time to live.
I should immensely like to know what is the potent charm wielded by
society to keep people prisoner from nine every evening till two or
three in the morning, and force them to be so lavish alike of strength
and money. When I longed for it, I had no idea of the separations it
brought about, or its overmastering spell. But, then, I forget, it is
Paris which does it all.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: even harder than before,--she said:
``Sister Helen Vincula, I must ask you something--''
Sister Helen Vincula and the lady talked a long time.
Bessie Bell did not listen very much to what they said.
She did not lean up against the lady now, but she sat close. Sister
Helen Vincula did not seem to mind that.
She did not swing her foot to and fro now, but she still felt very
contented and happy to have met the very Wisest Woman.
When she did listen a little she heard the lady say:
``There came news that my husband was ill in Mobile, and I feared
that it was of the Dreadful Fever, and I hurried there so that I
|
