| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: man had promised to pay all her debts, to give her a receipt for
the amount, and to hand over to her twenty thousand francs, in
return for the whole of her furniture. You have seen by the
amount taken at the sale that this honest man would have gained
thirty thousand francs out of his client.
We went back joyously to Bougival, talking over our projects for
the future, which, thanks to our heedlessness, and especially to
our love, we saw in the rosiest light.
A week later, as we were having lunch, Nanine came to tell us
that my servant was asking for me. "Let him come in," I said.
"Sir," said he, "your father has arrived in Paris, and begs you
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, 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 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: And that which all the faithful hope, as I do,
With the forementioned vivid consciousness
Have drawn me from the sea of love perverse,
And of the right have placed me on the shore.
The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the garden
Of the Eternal Gardener, do I love
As much as he has granted them of good."
As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweet
Throughout the heaven resounded, and my Lady
Said with the others, "Holy, holy, holy!"
And as at some keen light one wakes from sleep
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
