| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: entered the room, leading Sylvie by the hand, and with Bruno riding
triumphantly on his shoulder, was too noble and gentle to have scared a
less guilty man: but the Lord Chancellor turned pale instantly,
and could hardly articulate the words "The dimensions your--
your High Excellency? I--I--scarcely comprehend!"
"Well, the length, breadth, and thickness, if you like it better!"
And the old man smiled, half-contemptuously.
The Lord Chancellor recovered himself with a great effort, and pointed
to the open window. "If your High Excellency will listen for a moment
to the shouts of the exasperated populace--" ("of the exasperated
populace!" the Sub-Warden repeated in a louder tone, as the Lord
Sylvie and Bruno |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: shrinking from the slightest breath of scandal; while she is not
ashamed, when Ulysses, bathed and dressed, looks himself again, to
whisper to her maidens her wish that the Gods might send her such
a spouse.--This is Nausicaa as Homer draws her; and as many a
scholar and poet since Homer has accepted her for the ideal of
noble maidenhood. I ask my readers to study for themselves her
interview with Ulysses, in Mr. Worsley's translation, or rather in
the grand simplicity of the original Greek, {7} and judge whether
Nausicaa is not as perfect a lady as the poet who imagined her--
or, it may be, drew her from life--must have been a perfect
gentleman; both complete in those "manners" which, says the old
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: II. pushed his neglect of the proprieties so far as to put the
initials of his mistress on the buildings which Catherine advised him
to continue or to begin with so much magnificence. But the double
monogram which can be seen at the Louvre offers a daily denial to
those who are so little clear-sighted as to believe in silly nonsense
which gratuitously insults our kings and queens. The H or Henri and
the two C's of Catherine which back it, appear to represent the two
D's of Diane. The coincidence may have pleased Henri II., but it is
none the less true that the royal monogram contained officially the
initial of the king and that of the queen. This is so true that the
monogram can still be seen on the column of the Halle au Ble, which
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