| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: nonsense. As for the servants, don't hope to get aught out of them; I
think they are mutes, no one in the neighborhood knows the color of
their speech; I don't know what wages they can pay them to keep them
from talk and drink; the fact is, they are not to be got at, whether
because they are afraid of being shot, or that they have some enormous
sum to lose in the case of an indiscretion. If your master is fond
enough of Mademoiselle Paquita Valdes to surmount all these obstacles,
he certainly won't triumph over Dona Concha Marialva, the duenna who
accompanies her and would put her under her petticoats sooner than
leave her. The two women look as if they were sewn to one another."
"All that you say, worthy postman," went on Laurent, after having
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: his hand he shall find another hand by it. When the world is against him,
another shall say, 'You and I.'" And the child trembled.
But another pressed close and said, "Let me touch; for I am Talent. I can
do all things--that have been done before. I touch the soldier, the
statesman, the thinker, and the politician who succeed; and the writer who
is never before his time, and never behind it. If I touch the child he
shall not weep for failure."
About the mother's head the bees were flying, touching her with their long
tapering limbs; and, in her brain-picture, out of the shadow of the room
came one with sallow face, deep-lined, the cheeks drawn into hollows, and a
mouth smiling quiveringly. He stretched out his hand. And the mother drew
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: That on his head, a third with face to feet
Arch'd like a bow. When to the point we came,
Whereat my guide was pleas'd that I should see
The creature eminent in beauty once,
He from before me stepp'd and made me pause.
"Lo!" he exclaim'd, "lo Dis! and lo the place,
Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength."
How frozen and how faint I then became,
Ask me not, reader! for I write it not,
Since words would fail to tell thee of my state.
I was not dead nor living. Think thyself
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
