| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: to meet his appeal, I had at all events a couple of very bad days--
found myself doubtful again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake.
In this state of mind I spent the long hours of bumping,
swinging coach that carried me to the stopping place at which I
was to be met by a vehicle from the house. This convenience,
I was told, had been ordered, and I found, toward the close
of the June afternoon, a commodious fly in waiting for me.
Driving at that hour, on a lovely day, through a country to which
the summer sweetness seemed to offer me a friendly welcome,
my fortitude mounted afresh and, as we turned into the avenue,
encountered a reprieve that was probably but a proof of the point
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: something aloud out of the Elegant Extracts, very entertaining.
And I know he has read the Vicar of Wakefield. He never read the
Romance of the Forest, nor The Children of the Abbey. He had never
heard of such books before I mentioned them, but he is determined
to get them now as soon as ever he can."
The next question was--
"What sort of looking man is Mr. Martin?"
"Oh! not handsome--not at all handsome. I thought him very plain
at first, but I do not think him so plain now. One does not, you know,
after a time. But did you never see him? He is in Highbury every
now and then, and he is sure to ride through every week in his way
Emma |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: will tell me this is an inartistic age, and we are an inartistic
people, and the artist suffers much in this nineteenth century of
ours.
Of course he does. I, of all men, am not going to deny that. But
remember that there never has been an artistic age, or an artistic
people, since the beginning of the world. The artist has always
been, and will always be, an exquisite exception. There is no
golden age of art; only artists who have produced what is more
golden than gold.
WHAT, you will say to me, the Greeks? were not they an artistic
people?
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