| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: his fish story, Brooks with his Porto Rico cigars, old
Morrison with his anecdote about the widow, Hep-
burn with his invariable luck at billiards -- all these
afflictions had been repeated without change of bill or
scenery. Besides these morning evils Miss Allison
had refused him again on the night before. But that
was a chronic trouble. Five times she had laughed at
his offer to make her Mrs. Vuyning. He intended
to ask her again the next Wednesday evening.
Vuyning walked along Forty-fourth Street to
Broadway, and then drifted down the great sluice
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: worst of poets he sang the best of songs? Am I not right, Ion?
ION: Yes, indeed, Socrates, I feel that you are; for your words touch my
soul, and I am persuaded that good poets by a divine inspiration interpret
the things of the Gods to us.
SOCRATES: And you rhapsodists are the interpreters of the poets?
ION: There again you are right.
SOCRATES: Then you are the interpreters of interpreters?
ION: Precisely.
SOCRATES: I wish you would frankly tell me, Ion, what I am going to ask of
you: When you produce the greatest effect upon the audience in the
recitation of some striking passage, such as the apparition of Odysseus
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: a chariot.
"O Tanith! thou dost love me? I have looked so much on thee! But no!
thou sailest through thine azure, and I--I remain on the motionless
earth.
"Taanach, take your nebal and play softly on the silver string, for my
heart is sad!"
The slave lifted a sort of harp of ebony wood, taller than herself,
and triangular in shape like a delta; she fixed the point in a crystal
globe, and with both hands began to play.
The sounds followed one another hurried and deep, like the buzzing of
bees, and with increasing sonorousness floated away into the night
Salammbo |
