| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: of the former institution. Now, instead of a tournament, we have a
mob; instead of a noble exhibition, we have a tumultuous bazaar;
instead of a choice selection we have a chaotic mass. What is the
result? A great artist is swamped. Decamps' "Turkish Cafe," "Children
at a Fountain," "Joseph," and "The Torture," would have redounded far
more to his credit if the four pictures had been exhibited in the
great Salon with the hundred good pictures of that year, than his
twenty pictures could, among three thousand others, jumbled together
in six galleries.
By some strange contradiction, ever since the doors are open to every
one there has been much talk of unknown and unrecognized genius. When,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: with it, through the night, enormous vortex of wreck and vast wan
drift of corpses ...
But the Star remained. And Captain Abraham Smith, with a long,
good rope about his waist, dashed again and again into that awful
surging to snatch victims from death,--clutching at passing
hands, heads, garments, in the cataract-sweep of the
seas,--saving, aiding, cheering, though blinded by spray and
battered by drifting wreck, until his strength failed in the
unequal struggle at last, and his men drew him aboard senseless,
with some beautiful half-drowned girl safe in his arms. But
well-nigh twoscore souls had been rescued by him; and the Star
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: seemed very much inclined to forget her again.
Fanny shrunk back to her seat, with feelings sadly
pained by his language and his smell of spirits;
and he talked on only to his son, and only of the Thrush,
though William, warmly interested as he was in that subject,
more than once tried to make his father think of Fanny,
and her long absence and long journey.
After sitting some time longer, a candle was obtained;
but as there was still no appearance of tea, nor, from
Betsey's reports from the kitchen, much hope of any under
a considerable period, William determined to go and change
Mansfield Park |
