| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: door.
The daylight, already dim with fog, now entered only through the
little window, and feebly lighted the room and the two seats; the
fire, however, gave out a ruddy glow. Galope-Chopine refilled the
beakers, but his guests refused to drink again, and throwing aside
their large hats looked at him solemnly. Their gestures and the look
they gave him terrified Galope-Chopine, who fancied he saw blood in
the red woollen caps they wore.
"Fetch your axe," said Marche-a-Terre.
"But, Monsieur Marche-a-Terre, what do you want it for?"
"Come, cousin, you know very well," said Pille-Miche, pocketing his
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: us with glory. Luckily, too, or else there would have been more
shoddy reputations for first-rate seamanship. Ships have no ears,
I repeat, though, indeed, I think I have known ships who really
seemed to have had eyes, or else I cannot understand on what ground
a certain 1,000-ton barque of my acquaintance on one particular
occasion refused to answer her helm, thereby saving a frightful
smash to two ships and to a very good man's reputation. I knew her
intimately for two years, and in no other instance either before or
since have I known her to do that thing. The man she had served so
well (guessing, perhaps, at the depths of his affection for her) I
have known much longer, and in bare justice to him I must say that
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: Methinks in measure of their inward vision.
From a cold cloud descended never winds,
Or visible or not, so rapidly
They would not laggard and impeded seem
To any one who had those lights divine
Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration
Begun at first in the high Seraphim.
And behind those that most in front appeared
Sounded "Osanna!" so that never since
To hear again was I without desire.
Then unto us more nearly one approached,
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
