| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: walls of the dining-room. Not a single guest was bored; in fact, I
never yet knew a man who was sad during his digestion of a good
dinner. We like at such moments to remain in quietude, a species of
middle ground between the reverie of a thinker and the comfort of the
ruminating animals; a condition which we may call the material
melancholy of gastronomy.
So the guests now turned spontaneously to the excellent German,
delighted to have a tale to listen to, even though it might prove of
no interest. During this blessed interregnum the voice of a narrator
is always delightful to our languid senses; it increases their
negative happiness. I, a seeker after impressions, admired the faces
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: the sofa.
"Do you not want a light?" Em asked, venturing to look in.
"No," he answered; then presently called to her, "Come and sit here; I want
to talk to you."
She came and sat on a footstool near him.
"Do you wish to hear anything?" he asked.
She whispered:
"Yes, if it does not hurt you."
"What difference does it make to me?" he said. "If I talk or am silent, is
there any change?"
Yet he lay quiet for a long time. The light through the open door showed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: the price of the cow that you cannot afford.
EDIBLE, adj. Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a
toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man
to a worm.
EDITOR, n. A person who combines the judicial functions of Minos,
Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, but is placable with an obolus; a severely
virtuous censor, but so charitable withal that he tolerates the
virtues of others and the vices of himself; who flings about him the
splintering lightning and sturdy thunders of admonition till he
resembles a bunch of firecrackers petulantly uttering his mind at the
tail of a dog; then straightway murmurs a mild, melodious lay, soft as
The Devil's Dictionary |
