| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: indeed loved, but ravished, an almost divine woman, and achieved
through her the joy of paternity; as so loving his son that he would
rather have him eternally miserable with himself than think of him as
eternally happy with God; if, finally, you can imagine the mother's
soul for ever hovering over the child's head to snatch it from the
atrocious temptations offered by its father,--even then you will have
but a faint idea of this stupendous drama, which needs but little to
make it worthy of comparison with Mozart's /Don Giovanni/. /Don
Giovanni/ is in its perfection the greater, I grant; /Robert le
Diable/ expresses ideas, /Don Giovanni/ arouses sensations. /Don
Giovanni/ is as yet the only musical work in which harmony and melody
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different
men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it
will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do
opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my
sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony.
The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country.
For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of
freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject
ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that
we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility
which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: They let him up, scowling ferociously. He had promised
to explain, but now that he was confronted by the immedi-
ate necessity of an explanation that would prove at all satis-
factory as to how he happened to be wandering around the
rooftops of Burgova, he discovered that his powers of in-
vention were entirely inadequate. The need for explaining,
however, was suddenly removed. A shadow fell upon them
from above, and as they glanced up Barney saw the figure
of an officer surrounded by several soldiers looking down
upon him.
"Ah, you have him!" cried the new-comer in evident satis-
The Mad King |
