| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: enjoy little shall suffer little; immense happiness entails
unutterable anguish!
"How terrible a doom! If it be so, must we not shudder for
ourselves, we who are superhumanly happy? If nature sells us
everything at its true value, into what pit are we not fated to
fall? Ah! the most fortunate lovers are those who die together in
the midst of their youth and love! How sad it all is! Does my soul
foresee evil in the future? I examine myself, wondering whether
there is anything in me that can cause you a moment's anxiety. I
love you too selfishly perhaps? I shall be laying on your beloved
head a burden heavy out of all proportion to the joy my love can
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: 'by-and-byes' also with the throat of thunder" (that is, or was, the
Kafir name for cannon).* "They would be invincible. Chaka's kingdom
would be nothing to ours, for a hundred thousand warriors would sleep on
their spears, waiting for your word. If you wished it even you could
sweep out Natal and make the whites there your subjects, too. Or
perhaps it would be safer to let them be, lest others should come across
the green water to help them, and to strike northwards, where I am told
there are great lands as rich and fair, in which none would dispute our
sovereignty--"
[*--Cannon were called "by-and-byes" by the natives, because when
field-pieces first arrived in Natal inquisitive Kafirs pestered the
Child of Storm |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: his honor will be pleased to rub you with some sort of spirit --
it'll . . . draw it out of your side. Pavel Ivanitch will do his
best. He will shout and stamp about, but he will do his best. . .
. He is a nice gentleman, affable, God give him health! As soon
as we get there he will dart out of his room and will begin
calling me names. 'How? Why so?' he will cry. 'Why did you not
come at the right time? I am not a dog to be hanging about
waiting on you devils all day. Why did you not come
in the morning? Go away! Get out of my sight. Come again
to-morrow.' And I shall say: 'Mr. Doctor! Pavel Ivanitch! Your
honor!' Get on, do! plague take you, you devil! Get on!"
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
