| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: the piano he had chosen for her. The two old friends who still
remained to her, the Abbe Chaperon and Monsieur Bongrand, the only
visitors whom she received, were, in the midst of these inanimate
objects representative of the past, like two living memories of her
former life to which she attached her present by the love her
godfather had blessed.
After a while the sadness of her thoughts, softening gradually, gave
tone to the general tenor of her life and united all its parts in an
indefinable harmony, expressed by the exquisite neatness, the exact
symmetry of her room, the few flowers sent by Savinien, the dainty
nothings of a young girl's life, the tranquillity which her quiet
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: middle life experienced in that form of service. By the 1st
of January 1808, besides a pair of still-born twins, children
had been born and still survived to the young couple. By the
11th two were gone; by the 28th a third had followed, and the
two others were still in danger. In the letters of a former
nurserymaid - I give her name, Jean Mitchell, HONORIS CAUSA -
we are enabled to feel, even at this distance of time, some of
the bitterness of that month of bereavement.
`I have this day received,' she writes to Miss Janet,
`the melancholy news of my dear babys' deaths. My heart is
like to break for my dear Mrs. Stevenson. O may she be
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: 'Yes,' said Winston.
O'Brien stood up with a satisfied air. Over to his left Winston saw the
man in the white coat break an ampoule and draw back the plunger of a
syringe. O'Brien turned to Winston with a smile. In almost the old manner
he resettled his spectacles on his nose.
'Do you remember writing in your diary,' he said, 'that it did not matter
whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who
understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to
you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you
happen to be insane. Before we bring the session to an end you can ask me
a few questions, if you choose.'
1984 |
