| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: "You have built a splendid cage for a parrot that amuses you. Go and
ask a Brazilian cockatoo what gratitude it owes to the man who placed
it in a gilded cage.--Don't look at me like that; you are just like a
Buddist Bonze.
"Well, you show your red-and-white cockatoo to all Paris. You say,
'Does anybody else in Paris own such a parrot? And how well it talks,
how cleverly it picks its words!' If du Tillet comes in, it says at
once, 'How'do, little swindler!'--Why, you are as happy as a Dutchman
who has grown an unique tulip, as an old nabob pensioned off in Asia
by England, when a commercial traveler sells him the first Swiss
snuff-box that opens in three places.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: author to hold a pen; he has to do it so much that his heart
sickens and his fingers ache at the sight or touch of it; so that
you will excuse me if I do not write much, but remain (with
compliments and greetings from one Scot to another - though I was
not born in Ceylon - you're ahead of me there). - Yours very truly,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Letter: TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM
VAILIMA, DECEMBER 5, 1893.
MY DEAREST CUMMY, - This goes to you with a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year. The Happy New Year anyway, for I think it should
reach you about NOOR'S DAY. I dare say it may be cold and frosty.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: whence on the right they beheld a wide valley, differing both in
feature and atmosphere from that of the Hintock precincts. It was
the cider country, which met the woodland district on the axis of
this hill. Over the vale the air was blue as sapphire--such a
blue as outside that apple-valley was never seen. Under the blue
the orchards were in a blaze of bloom, some of the richly flowered
trees running almost up to where they drove along. Over a gate
which opened down the incline a man leaned on his arms, regarding
this fair promise so intently that he did not observe their
passing.
"That was Giles," said Melbury, when they had gone by.
The Woodlanders |
