| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: the wrinkles on an old man's brow. The whole scene made a background
of ashen grays and half-tints, in strong contrast to the bale-fires of
the sunset. If written language might borrow of spoken language some
of the bold figures of speech invented by the people, it might be said
with the soldier that "the weather has been routed," or, as the
peasant would say, "the sky glowered like an executioner." Suddenly a
wind arose from the quarter of the sunset, and the skipper, who never
took his eyes off the sea, saw the swell on the horizon line, and
cried:
"Stop rowing!"
The sailors stopped immediately, and let their oars lie on the water.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: ago; and the following translation is two hundred years old, for
it seems to be written near the end of Henry the Seventh's reign.
I found it in an old edition of Merlin's Prophecies, imprinted at
London by John Hawkins in the year 1530, page 39. I set it down
word for word in the old orthography, and shall take leave to
subjoin a few explanatory notes.
Seven and Ten addyd to Nyne,
Of Fraunce her Woe this is the Sygne,
Tamys Rivere twys y-frozen,
Walke sans wetyng Shoes ne Hozen.
Then comyth foorthe, ich understonde,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: freer thing for us, because we passed it hand in hand, than if we had
passed through it alone,' it has failed? Do you care for him enough to
live for him, not tomorrow, but when he is an old, faded man, and you an
old, faded woman? Can you forgive him his sins and his weaknesses, when
they hurt you most? If he were to lie a querulous invalid for twenty
years, would you be able to fold him in your arms all that time, and
comfort him, as a mother comforts her little child?" The woman drew her
breath heavily.
"Oh, I love him absolutely! I would be glad to die, if only I could once
know that he loved me better than anything in the world!"
The woman stood looking down at her. "Have you never thought of that other
|
