| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: impossible to speak too highly; and most pleasant it is to see a
man of genius and learning thus gathering the bloom of his varied
knowledge, to put it into a form equally suited to a child and a
SAVANT. Seldom, perhaps, has there been a little book in which so
vast a quantity of facts have been told so gracefully, simply,
without a taint of pedantry or cumbrousness - an excellence which
is the sure and only mark of a perfect mastery of the subject. Mr.
G. H. Lewes's "Sea-shore Studies" are also very valuable; hardly
perhaps a book for beginners, but from his admirable power of
description, whether of animals or of scenes, is interesting for
all classes of readers.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: forgot to reckon on the hazard of events. Adam fell seriously ill, and
Thaddeus, instead of leaving the house, stayed to nurse his friend.
His devotion was unwearied. A woman who had any interest in employing
her perspicacity might have seen in this devotion a sort of punishment
imposed by a noble soul to repress an involuntary evil thought; but
women see all, or see nothing, according to the condition of their
souls--love is their sole illuminator.
During forty-five days Paz watched and tended Adam without appearing
to think of Malaga, for the very good reason that he never did think of
her. Clementine, feeling that Adam was at the point of death though he
did not die, sent for all the leading doctors of Paris in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: her eyes.
She was gazing hard at a black object--nearer to the shore than to
the horizon--from the summit of which came a nebulous haze,
stretching like gauze over the sea.
'The Puffin, a little summer steamboat--from Bristol to Castle
Boterel,' she said. 'I think that is it--look. Will you give me
the glass?'
Knight pulled open the old-fashioned but powerful telescope, and
handed it to Elfride, who had looked on with heavy eyes.
'I can't keep it up now,' she said.
'Rest it on my shoulder.'
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
