| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: most serious, most absorbed, popped out and gave her away. And Anna
blessed that dimple. It meant an extra half-hour in bed for her; it made
Sabina light the fire, turn out the kitchen and wash endless cups and
saucers that had been left over from the evening before. Hans, the
scullery boy, did not come until seven. He was the son of the butcher--a
mean, undersized child very much like one of his father's sausages, Sabina
thought. His red face was covered with pimples, and his nails
indescribably filthy. When Herr Lehmann himself told Hans to get a hairpin
and clean them he said they were stained from birth because his mother had
always got so inky doing the accounts--and Sabina believed him and pitied
him.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: beyond all others he will prove a stout and strong commander. And by
strong, I mean, not one so hale of body as to tower above the stoutest
of the soldiery themselves; no, nor him whose skill to hurl a javelin
or shoot an arrow will outshine the skilfullest; nor yet that mounted
on the fleetest charger it shall be his to bear the brunt of danger
foremost amid the knightliest horsemen, the nimblest of light
infantry. No, not these, but who is able to implant a firm persuasion
in the minds of all his soldiers: follow him they must and will
through fire, if need be, or into the jaws of death.[8]
[8] Or, "through flood and fire or other desperate strait." Cf.
"Anab." II. vi. 8.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: thirteen years of age. Two years from now that creature may be worth
sixty thousand francs; she will be all or nothing, a great danseuse or
a marcheuse, a celebrated person or a vulgar courtesan. She has worked
hard since she was eight years old. Such as you see her, she is worn
out with fatigue; she exhausted her body this morning in the dancing-
class, she is just leaving a rehearsal where the evolutions are as
complicated as a Chinese puzzle; and she'll go through them again to-
night. The rat is one of the primary elements of the Opera; she is to
the leading danseuse what a junior clerk is to a notary. The rat is--
hope."
"Who produces the rat?" asked Gazonal.
|
