| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: cramped her hand, and dimmed the glowing colors of her fancy. But
observing her uncle's steadfast gaze, which appeared to search
through the mist of years to discover the subject of the picture,
her curiosity was excited.
"Is it known, my dear uncle," inquired she, "what this old
picture once represented? Possibly, could it be made visible, it
might prove a masterpiece of some great artist--else, why has it
so long held such a conspicuous place?"
As her uncle, contrary to his usual custom (for he was as
attentive to all the humors and caprices of Alice as if she had
been his own best-beloved child), did not immediately reply, the
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: evening, which seemed as if it were going to be as long as the
last, anywhere but at home. The duke came in the morning. It
seems to me as if the sight of this old man, whom death has
forgotten, makes me die faster.
Despite the burning fever which devoured me, I made them dress me
and take me to the Vaudeville. Julie put on some rouge for me,
without which I should have looked like a corpse. I had the box
where I gave you our first rendezvous. All the time I had my eyes
fixed on the stall where you sat that day, though a sort of
country fellow sat there, laughing loudly at all the foolish
things that the actors said. I was half dead when they brought me
Camille |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: their horror of innovation; and I applauded the silent contempt
they were so vociferous in expressing, for upstart pride, French
fashions, and the Miss Lambs. But I grieve to say that I soon
perceived the infection had taken hold; and that my neighbors,
after condemning, were beginning to follow their example. I
overheard my landlady importuning her husband to let their
daughters have one quarter at French and music, and that they
might take a few lessons in quadrille. I even saw, in the course
of a few Sundays, no less than five French bonnets, precisely
like those of the Miss Lambs, parading about Little Britain.
I still had my hopes that all this folly would gradually die
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