| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: sacrifice eternity to reward him who devotes to me his life? The
thought is dreadful; it wounds every sentiment of religion. Could a
woman so fallen rise again? Would her happiness absolve her? These are
questions you force me to consider.--Yes, I betray at last the secret
of my conscience; the thought has traversed my heart; often do I
expiate it by penance; it caused the tears you asked me to account for
yesterday--"
"Do you not give too great importance to certain things which common
women hold at a high price, and--"
"Oh!" she said, interrupting me; "do you hold them at a lower?"
This logic stopped all argument.
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: come upon me bright, when nothing else is evident in the gray fog
of experience."--B. D. BLACKMORE: Lorna Doone.
Of all the faculties of the human mind, memory is the one that is
most easily "led by the nose." There is a secret power in the
sense of smell which draws the mind backward into the pleasant land
of old times.
If you could paint a picture of Memory, in the symbolical manner of
Quarles's Emblems, it should represent a man travelling the highway
with a dusty pack upon his shoulders, and stooping to draw in a
long, sweet breath from the small, deep-red, golden-hearted flowers
of an old-fashioned rose-tree straggling through the fence of a
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: occupied with the important question you have just opened, for we
must not be guilty of imprudence."
"No, indeed!" I replied with forcible emphasis.
"For six hundred years Snæfell has been dumb; but he may speak again.
Now, eruptions are always preceded by certain well-known phenomena. I
have therefore examined the natives, I have studied external
appearances, and I can assure you, Axel, that there will be no
eruption."
At this positive affirmation I stood amazed and speechless.
"You don't doubt my word?" said my uncle. "Well, follow me."
I obeyed like an automaton. Coming out from the priest's house, the
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
