| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: many hopes defeated by a change of weather! He was hanging there to a
granite rock, his arm extended like that of an Indian fakir, while his
father, sitting in their hovel, awaited, in silence and darkness, a
meal of the coarsest bread and shell-fish, if the sea permitted.
"Do you ever drink wine?" I asked.
"Three or four times a year," he replied.
"Well, you shall drink it to-day,--you and your father; and we will
send you some white bread."
"You are very kind, monsieur."
"We will give you your dinner if you will show us the way along the
shore to Batz, where we wish to see the tower which overlooks the bay
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: the forms of justice, is a much as to say, "Prepare to die; your last
hour has come."
"I will return later, Monsieur le Comte," said Camusot. "Though
business is pressing----"
"No, stay," replied the public prosecutor with dignity. "A magistrate,
monsieur, must accept his anxieties and know how to hide them. I was
in fault if you saw any traces of agitation in me----"
Camusot bowed apologetically.
"God grant you may never know these crucial perplexities of our life.
A man might sink under less! I have just spent the night with one of
my most intimate friends.--I have but two friends, the Comte Octave de
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: Then there was great rejoicing in the house of Tokubei; and he gave a
feast to all his friends in celebration of the happy event. But on the
night of the feast the nurse O-Sode was suddenly taken ill; and on the
following morning, the doctor, who had been summoned to attend her,
announced that she was dying.
Then the family, in great sorrow, gathered about her bed, to bid her
farewell. But she said to them:--
"It is time that I should tell you something which you do not know. My
prayer has been heard. I besought Fudo-Sama that I might be permitted to
die in the place of O-Tsuyu; and this great favor has been granted me.
Therefore you must not grieve about my death... But I have one request to
Kwaidan |
