| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: inhabited house in the brand-new city of nations; England has already
declined, since she has lost the States; and to these States,
therefore, yet undeveloped, full of dark possibilities, and grown,
like another Eve, from one rib out of the side of their own old land,
the minds of young men in England turn naturally at a certain hopeful
period of their age. It will be hard for an American to understand
the spirit. But let him imagine a young man, who shall have grown up
in an old and rigid circle, following bygone fashions and taught to
distrust his own fresh instincts, and who now suddenly hears of a
family of cousins, all about his own age, who keep house together by
themselves and live far from restraint and tradition; let him imagine
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: had been endowed in vain with all those faculties that can make the
world a garden of enchantment, one who had never lived and who was
now dead. But of penitence, no, not a tremor.
With that, shaking himself clear of these considerations, he found
the keys and advanced towards the open door of the shop. Outside,
it had begun to rain smartly; and the sound of the shower upon the
roof had banished silence. Like some dripping cavern, the chambers
of the house were haunted by an incessant echoing, which filled the
ear and mingled with the ticking of the clocks. And, as Markheim
approached the door, he seemed to hear, in answer to his own
cautious tread, the steps of another foot withdrawing up the stair.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: never shall. To-morrow, I shall fetch her from Churchhill, and let Maria
Mainwaring tremble for the consequence. Frederica shall be Sir James's wife
before she quits my house, and she may whimper, and the Vernons may storm,
I regard them not. I am tired of submitting my will to the caprices of
others; of resigning my own judgment in deference to those to whom I owe no
duty, and for whom I feel no respect. I have given up too much, have been
too easily worked on, but Frederica shall now feel the difference. Adieu,
dearest of friends ; may the next gouty attack be more favourable! and may
you always regard me as unalterably yours,
S. VERNON
XL
Lady Susan |
