| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: usually keen to have them open; the example of Miss Hazeltine
(whom he cursed again) was there to remind him of the
circumstance; and if anyone had opened the water-butt--'O Lord!'
cried Morris at the thought, and carried his hand to his damp
forehead. The private conception of any breach of law is apt to
be inspiriting, for the scheme (while yet inchoate) wears dashing
and attractive colours. Not so in the least that part of the
criminal's later reflections which deal with the police. That
useful corps (as Morris now began to think) had scarce been kept
sufficiently in view when he embarked upon his enterprise. 'I
must play devilish close,' he reflected, and he was aware of an
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: From end to end of the island, thought not the distance long,
But forth from king to king carried the tale of her wrong.
To king after king, as they sat in the palace door, she came,
Claiming kinship, declaiming verses, naming her name
And the names of all of her fathers; and still, with a heart on the rack,
Jested to capture a hearing and laughed when they jested back:
So would deceive them awhile, and change and return in a breath,
And on all the men of Vaiau imprecate instant death;
And tempt her kings - for Vaiau was a rich and prosperous land,
And flatter - for who would attempt it but warriors mighty of hand?
And change in a breath again and rise in a strain of song,
Ballads |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: drink from the cup held to my lips by the sweet hands of a veiled
woman without a passionate desire to tear off the domino and the
mask and see the face. Either write me no more, or give me hope.
Let me see you, or let me go. Must I bid you adieu? Will you
permit me to sign myself,
Your Friend?
To Monsieur de Canalis,--What flattery! with what rapidity is the
grave Anselme transformed into a handsome Leander! To what must I
attribute such a change? to this black which I put upon this
white? to these ideas which are to the flowers of my soul what a
rose drawn in charcoal is to the roses in the garden? Or is it to
Modeste Mignon |
