| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: "Father of Lies"; in the published speeches of Cicero and the
biographies of Suetonius; in Tacitus at his best; in Pliny's
NATURAL HISTORY; in Hanno's PERIPLUS; in all the early chronicles;
in the Lives of the Saints; in Froissart and Sir Thomas Malory; in
the travels of Marco Polo; in Olaus Magnus, and Aldrovandus, and
Conrad Lycosthenes, with his magnificent PRODIGIORUM ET OSTENTORUM
CHRONICON; in the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini; in the
memoirs of Casanova; in Defoe's HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE; in Boswell's
LIFE OF JOHNSON; in Napoleon's despatches, and in the works of our
own Carlyle, whose FRENCH REVOLUTION is one of the most fascinating
historical novels ever written, facts are either kept in their
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: As the handsome knight was very silent and melancholy, his companion
said to him on the road home from Hercules House, where the fete had
been held--
"My dear lord, I have done you a great mischief."
"Ah, madame!" replied Lavalliere, "my hurt is curable; but into what a
predicament have you fallen? You should not have been aware of the
danger of my love."
"Ah!" said she, "I am sure now always to have you to myself; in
exchange for this great obloquy and dishonour, I will be forever your
friend, your hostess, and your lady-love--more than that, your
servant. My determination is to devote myself to you and efface the
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: I asked him to look at my curiosity. Hardly, however, had I turned
the wriggling little victim out upon the leather-covered table,
when down came the doctor's great thumb-nail upon him,
and an inch-long smear proved the tomb of all my hopes,
while the great bibliographer, wiping his thumb on his coat sleeve,
passed on with the remark, "Oh, yes! they have black heads sometimes."
That was something to know--another fact for the entomologist;
for my little gentleman had a hard, shiny, white head,
and I never heard of a black-headed bookworm before or since.
Perhaps the great abundance of black-letter books in the Bodleian
may account for the variety. At any rate he was an Anobium.
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