| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: boulevard des Italiens, where they found themselves surrounded by the
elegances then in fashion. A young man about twenty-eight years of age
advanced to meet them with a smiling face, for he saw Leon de Lora
first. Vauvinet held out his hand with apparent friendliness to
Bixiou, and bowed coldly to Gazonal as he motioned them to enter his
office, where bourgeois taste was visible beneath the artistic
appearance of the furniture, and in spite of the statuettes and the
thousand other little trifles applied to our little apartments by
modern art, which has made itself as small as its patrons.
Vauvinet was dressed, like other young men of our day who go into
business, with extreme elegance, which many of them regard as a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: beautiful woman, with a helmet on her head, from beneath which
the long ringlets fell down upon her shoulders. On the left arm
was a shield, and in its center appeared a lifelike
representation of the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. The
right arm was extended, as if pointing onward. The face of this
wonderful statue, though not angry or forbidding, was so grave
and majestic, that perhaps you might call it severe; and as for
the mouth, it seemed just ready to unclose its lips, and utter
words of the deepest wisdom.
Jason was delighted with the oaken image, and gave the carver
no rest until it was completed, and set up where a figure-head
Tanglewood Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: weeping for him when he began his speech.
"Men of Ithaca," he said, "hear my words. From the day Ulysses
left us there has been no meeting of our councillors until now;
who then can it be, whether old or young, that finds it so
necessary to convene us? Has he got wind of some host
approaching, and does he wish to warn us, or would he speak upon
some other matter of public moment? I am sure he is an
excellent person, and I hope Jove will grant him his heart's
desire."
Telemachus took this speech as of good omen and rose at once,
for he was bursting with what he had to say. He stood in the
The Odyssey |
