| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: that our hearts were beating as if with a sense of fear. In spite of
the heat of the day, and the fatigue caused by toiling through the
sand, our souls were still surrendered to the softness unspeakable of
our exquisite ecstasy. They were filled with that pure pleasure which
cannot be described unless we liken it to the joy of listening to
enchanting music, Mozart's "Audiamo mio ben," for instance. When two
pure sentiments blend together, what is that but two sweet voices
singing? To be able to appreciate properly the emotion that held us,
it would be necessary to share the state of half sensuous delight into
which the events of the morning had plunged us. Admire for a long time
some pretty dove with iridescent colors, perched on a swaying branch
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: distinctly was its human likeness stamped among visible
realities, the more sagacious grew its expression, the more
lifelike its gestures and movements, and the more intelligibly
audible its voice. Its garments, too, glistened so much the
brighter with an illusory magnificence. The very pipe, in which
burned the spell of all this wonderwork, ceased to appear as a
smoke-blackened earthen stump, and became a meerschaum, with
painted bowl and amber mouthpiece.
It might be apprehended, however, that as the life of the
illusion seemed identical with the vapor of the pipe, it would
terminate simultaneously with the reduction of the tobacco to
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: "I trust not," was the placid reply. "Most of my people are safe:
some are shipped as lascars upon the liners; others have departed
by different means. Ah!"
That last word was the only one indicative of excitement
which had yet escaped him. A disk of light danced among
the brilliant poison hues of the passages--but no sound reached us;
by which I knew that the glass door must fit almost hermetically.
It was much cooler here than in the place through which we had passed,
and the nausea began to leave me, my brain to grow more clear.
Had I known what was to follow I should have cursed the lucidity
of mind which now came to me; I should have prayed for oblivion--
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
