| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: court was long established, great families and fortunes and
distinguished men should have settled and built palaces as grand
as themselves."
But is it not incomprehensible that Royalty did not follow the advice
indirectly given by Louis XI. to place the capital of the kingdom at
Tours? There, without great expense, the Loire might have been made
accessible for the merchant service, and also for vessels-of-war of
light draught. There, too, the seat of government would have been safe
from the dangers of invasion. Had this been done, the northern cities
would not have required such vast sums of money spent to fortify them,
--sums as vast as were those expended on the sumptuous glories of
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: the wonderful Rune-carved sword in his cot.
'The Abbot shook his head at first, and then he laughed
and said to the novice: "Son Hugh, it needed no sign
from a heathen God to show me that you will never be a
monk. Take your sword, and keep your sword, and go
with your sword, and be as gentle as you are strong and
courteous. We will hang up the Smith's tools before the
Altar," he said, "because, whatever the Smith of the
Gods may have been, in the old days, we know that he
worked honestly for his living and made gifts to Mother
Church." Then they went to bed again, all except the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: almost imperceptible spot on the photographic negative,--
"I'm blessed but it is really a vessel!" he exclaimed, in a voice which
did not express any great amount of satisfaction.
"Is she coming here?" asked Gideon Spilett.
"Impossible to say anything yet," answered Pencroft, "for her rigging
alone is above the horizon, and not a bit of her hull can be seen."
"What is to be done?" asked the lad.
"Wait," replied Harding.
And for a considerable time the settlers remained silent, given up to all
the thoughts, and the emotions, all the fears, all the hopes, which were
aroused by this incident--the most important which had occurred since their
The Mysterious Island |
