| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: belief; there a Leaguer cursed Henry IV.; elsewhere some bourgeois has
carved the insignia of his /noblesse de cloches/, symbols of his long-
forgotten magisterial glory. The whole history of France is there.
Next to a tottering house with roughly plastered walls, where an
artisan enshrines his tools, rises the mansion of a country gentleman,
on the stone arch of which above the door vestiges of armorial
bearings may still be seen, battered by the many revolutions that have
shaken France since 1789. In this hilly street the ground-floors of
the merchants are neither shops nor warehouses; lovers of the Middle
Ages will here find the /ouvrouere/ of our forefathers in all its
naive simplicity. These low rooms, which have no shop-frontage, no
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: right; it was the only available path. He pitched the pebbles over
the edge of the chasm. Although hard and heavy in his hand, they
sank more like feathers than stones, and left a long trail of vapour
behind. While Maskull was still watching them disappear, Haunte came
rushing out of the cavern, followed by Corpang. He gripped Maskull's
arm excitedly.
"What in Krag's name have you done?"
"Overboard they have gone," replied Maskull, renewing his laughter.
"You accursed madman!"
Haunte's luminous colour came and went, just as though his internal
light were breathing. Then he grew suddenly calm, by a supreme
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: information and knowledge of mankind, however extensive, and
however painfully acquired, by constant domestic enquiry, and by
foreign travel, is, natheless, incompetent to the task of
recording the pleasant narratives of my Landlord, I will let
these critics know, to their own eternal shame and confusion as
well as to the abashment and discomfiture of all who shall rashly
take up a song against me, that I am NOT the writer, redacter, or
compiler, of the Tales of my Landlord; nor am I, in one single
iota, answerable for their contents, more or less. And now, ye
generation of critics, who raise yourselves up as if it were
brazen serpents, to hiss with your tongues, and to smite with
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