| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: and die. all because of your light and frivolous heart -- but, ah! how
lamentable an end!"...
III
Most of the Japanese stories about butterflies appear, as I have said, to
be of Chinese origin. But I have one which is probably indigenous; and it
seems to me worth telling for the benefit of persons who believe there is
no "romantic love" in the Far East.
Behind the cemetery of the temple of Sozanji, in the suburbs of the
capital, there long stood a solitary cottage, occupied by an old man named
Takahama. He was liked in the neighborhood, by reason of his amiable ways;
but almost everybody supposed him to be a little mad. Unless a man take the
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: thrusting back the German instantly with his musket, - he took the
poor dwarf by the hand, and placed him before him. - This is noble!
said I, clapping my hands together. - And yet you would not permit
this, said the old officer, in England.
- In England, dear Sir, said I, WE SIT ALL AT OUR EASE.
The old French officer would have set me at unity with myself, in
case I had been at variance, - by saying it was a BON MOT; - and,
as a BON MOT is always worth something at Paris, he offered me a
pinch of snuff.
THE ROSE. PARIS.
IT WAS now my turn to ask the old French officer "What was the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: rock the praam-boat with the balance-crane, which had now been
on board of the praam for five days. The several pieces of
this machine, having been conveyed along the railways upon the
waggons to a position immediately under the bridge, were
elevated to its level, or thirty feet above the rock, in the
following manner. A chain-tackle was suspended over a pulley
from the cross-beam connecting the tops of the kingposts of
the bridge, which was worked by a winch-machine with wheel,
pinion, and barrel, round which last the chain was wound.
This apparatus was placed on the beacon side of the bridge, at
the distance of about twelve feet from the cross-beam and
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