| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: could not forget Gavryl, however--the threatening words he had
used in the court-room and those which Ivan had just heard.
Presently Taraska came in, and after having his supper, put on
his sheepskin coat, and, taking some bread with him, returned to
watch over his horses for the night. His eldest brother wished
to accompany him, but Ivan himself arose and went with him as far
as the porch. The night was dark and cloudy and a strong wind
was blowing, which produced a peculiar whistling sound that was
most unpleasant to the ear. Ivan helped his son to mount his
horse, which, followed by a colt, started off on a gallop.
Ivan stood for a few moments looking around him and listening to
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: Of things which slay their sower, these each day
Sees rife in England, and the gentle feet
Of Beauty tread no more the stones of each unlovely street.
What even Cromwell spared is desecrated
By weed and worm, left to the stormy play
Of wind and beating snow, or renovated
By more destructful hands: Time's worst decay
Will wreathe its ruins with some loveliness,
But these new Vandals can but make a rain-proof barrenness.
Where is that Art which bade the Angels sing
Through Lincoln's lofty choir, till the air
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: unlike the humming of bees. Hearing which, the Tarantula rushes
out fiercely that she may catch the flies or other insects of this
kind, whose buzzing she thinks it to be; but she herself is caught
by her rustic trapper.'
{6} Provencal for the bit of waste ground on which the author
studies his insects in the natural state.--Translator's note.
{7} 'Thanks to the Bumble-bee.'
{8} Like the Dung-beetles.--Translator's Note.
{9} Like the Solitary Wasps.--Translator's Note.
{10} Such as the Hairy Ammophila, the Cerceris and the
Languedocian Sphex, Digger-wasps described in other of the author's
The Life of the Spider |
