| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Brackenburg, is it you? What noise was that? No one yet? No one! I will
set the lamp in the window, that he may see that I am still awake, that I
still watch for him. He promised me tidings. Tidings? horrible certainty!--
Egmont condemned!--what tribunal has the right to summon him?--And
they dare to condemn him!--Does the king condemn him, or the duke?
And the Regent withdraws herself! Orange hesitates, and all his friends! --
Is this the world, of whose fickleness and treachery I have heard so much,
and as yet experienced nothing? Is this the world?--Who could be so base
as to hear malice against one so dear? Could villainy itself be audacious
enough to overwhelm with sudden destruction the object of a nation's
homage? Yet so it is--it is-O Egmont, I held thee safe before God and
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: without some guarantee. It happens sometimes, when two are talking
together, apart from the world, their souls stripped of social
disguise, that a gesture, a word, a look lights up, as by a flash,
some dark abyss. You have courage and strength to tread boldly in
paths where others would be lost.
You have no conception in what anxiety I watch you. Across all this
space I see you; my heart beats with yours. Be sure, therefore, to
write and tell me everything. Your letters create an inner life of
passion within my homely, peaceful household, which reminds me of a
level highroad on a gray day. The only event here, my sweet, is that I
am playing cross-purposes with myself. But I don't want to tell you
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: whose pleasant face he lowered his eyes again, and fixed them on
the floor.
'And how have you been employing yourself in the meanwhile?' quoth
Sir John, lazily crossing his legs. 'Where have you been? what
harm have you been doing?'
'No harm at all, master,' growled Hugh, with humility. 'I have
only done as you ordered.'
'As I WHAT?' returned Sir John.
'Well then,' said Hugh uneasily, 'as you advised, or said I ought,
or said I might, or said that you would do, if you was me. Don't
be so hard upon me, master.'
Barnaby Rudge |
