| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: sanguine of reformers, he rested himself as a Pessimist and
Ninanist. In The Ring the quietism of Brynhild's "Rest, rest,
thou God" is sublime in its deep conviction; but you have only to
turn back the pages to find the irrepressible bustle of Siegfried
and the revelry of the clansmen expressed with equal zest. Wagner
was not a Schopenhaurite every day in the week, nor even a
Wagnerite. His mind changes as often as his mood. On Monday
nothing will ever induce him to return to quilldriving: on
Tuesday he begins a new pamphlet. On Wednesday he is impatient of
the misapprehensions of people who cannot see how impossible it
is for him to preside as a conductor over platform performances
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: In so far as he could understand her, she was wrong; a silly,
rattling woman was certainly not the equal of a sensible man,
preoccupied with an ambitious passion. Madame de Bellegarde
stopped suddenly, and looked at him sharply, shaking her fan.
"I see you don't believe me," she said, "you are too much on your guard.
You will not form an alliance, offensive or defensive?
You are very wrong; I could help you."
Newman answered that he was very grateful and that he would certainly ask
for help; she should see. "But first of all," he said, "I must help myself."
And he went to join Madame de Cintre.
"I have been telling Madame de la Rochefidele that you are
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Kovudoo and his men came upon Korak, Akut and Meriem after
the killing of the king ape, the noise of the combat having
led them at last straight to their quarry. The sight of the
slender white girl had amazed the savage chief and held him
gazing at the trio for a moment before ordering his warriors to
rush out upon their prey. In that moment it was that the great
apes came and again the blacks remained awestruck witnesses to
the palaver, and the battle between Korak and the young bull.
But now the apes had gone, and the white youth and the white
maid stood alone in the jungle. One of Kovudoo's men leaned
close to the ear of his chief. "Look!" he whispered, and pointed
The Son of Tarzan |
