| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: quenched, glimmered again for a moment; parlor, books, busts,
flower-pots, bird-cages, all complete, - and the figures as
before.]
We are waiting with eagerness, Sir, - said the divinity-student.
[The transparency went out as if a flash of black lightning had
struck it.]
If you want to hear my confessions, the next thing - I said - is to
know whether I can trust you with them. It is only fair to say
that there are a great many people in the world that laugh at such
things. I think they are fools, but perhaps you don't all agree
with me.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: "You are suffering?" she said in a voice whose intonations produced
upon his heart the same effect as that of her look. "Would I could
help you!"
"Love me as I love you."
"Poor Minna!" she replied.
"Why am I unarmed!" exclaimed Wilfrid, violently.
"You are out of temper," said Seraphita, smiling. "Come, have I not
spoken to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?"
Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita.
"I forgive you," he said; "for you know not what you do."
"You mistake," she replied; "every woman from the days of Eve does
Seraphita |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: many indeed that they cannot well be attributed to
mere coincidence or even to the blasphemous wiles of the
Devil! Let us enumerate some of these. There are (1)
the birth from a Virgin mother; (2) the birth in a stable
(cave or underground chamber); and (3) on the 25th December
(just after the winter solstice). There is (4) the
Star in the East (Sirius) and (5) the arrival of the Magi
(the "Three Kings"); there is (6) the threatened Massacre
of the Innocents, and the consequent flight into a distant
country (told also of Krishna and other Sungods). There
are the Church festivals of (7) Candlemas (2nd February),
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
