| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: there was nothing to turn back for, and the time must
be got through somehow. The avenues of big trees ran
straight over the Esplanade, cutting each other at di-
verse angles, columnar below and luxuriant above. The
interlaced boughs high up there seemed to slumber; not
a leaf stirred overhead: and the reedy cast-iron lamp-
posts in the middle of the road, gilt like scepters,
diminished in a long perspective, with their globes of
white porcelain atop, resembling a barbarous decoration
of ostriches' eggs displayed in a row. The flaming sky
kindled a tiny crimson spark upon the glistening sur-
End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: But it will mean a future. It will mean that I will have
something solid to stand on. It will be a real
beginning--a breathing spell--time in which to accomplish
something really worth while--independence--freedom from
this tread-mill--"
"Stop!" cried Von Gerhard, sharply. Then, as I
stared in surprise--"I do ask your pardon. I was again
rude, nicht wahr? But in me there is a queer vein of
German superstition that disapproves of air castles.
Sich einbilden, we call it."
The lights of the bay pavilion twinkled just ahead.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short
all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as
difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to
recover from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the
fragrance of our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a sub-
prefecture!"
"Ah! what mightn't France be if she had only preserved her feudal
capitals!" said Desfondrilles. "Can sub-prefects replace the poetic,
gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara
was to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day."
"Was Provins ever a capital?" asked Rogron.
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