| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: true, into a species of surprise-game, and of taking his readers, as
certain novellists do, through many volumes and from cellar to cellar,
to show them the dry bones of a dead body, and tell them, by way of
conclusion, that THAT is what has frightened them behind doors, hidden
in the arras, or in cellars where the dead man was buried and
forgotten. In spite of his aversion for prefaces, the author feels
bound to place the following statement at the head of this narrative.
Ferragus is a first episode which clings by invisible links to the
"History of the THIRTEEN," whose power, naturally acquired, can alone
explain certain acts and agencies which would otherwise seem
supernatural. Although it is permissible in tellers of tales to have a
Ferragus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: LORD AUGUSTUS. You want to make her out a wicked woman. She is
not!
CECIL GRAHAM. Oh! Wicked women bother one. Good women bore one.
That is the only difference between them.
LORD AUGUSTUS. [Puffing a cigar.] Mrs. Erlynne has a future
before her.
DUMBY. Mrs. Erlynne has a past before her.
LORD AUGUSTUS. I prefer women with a past. They're always so
demmed amusing to talk to.
CECIL GRAHAM. Well, you'll have lots of topics of conversation
with HER, Tuppy. [Rising and going to him.]
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: nurse.
This wonderful transformation is the instrument of nature, to
balance matters between the sexes. The cruelty of scornful
mistresses shall be return'd; the slighted maid shall grow into
an imperious gallant, and reward her undoer with a big belly, and
a bastard.
It is hardly possible to imagine the revolutions that this
wonderful phaenomenon will occasion over the face of the earth. I
long impatiently to see the proceedings of the Parliament of
Paris, as to the title of succession to the crown, this being a
case not provided for by the salique law. There will be no
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