| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: that time of general baseness and sham political conversions, the
public conscience was glad to recognise the unstained loyalty of
the two houses, and a consistency in political and private life
for which all parties involuntarily respected them. But,
unfortunately, as so often happens in a time of transition, the
most disinterested persons, the men whose loftiness of view and
wise principles would have gained the confidence of the French
nation and led them to believe in the generosity of a novel and
spirited policy--these men, to repeat, were taken out of affairs,
and public business was allowed to fall into the hands of others,
who found it to their interest to push principles to their
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: nevertheless contained a little water at the bottom. He had
watered the mule here, refilled the canteen, and drank deep
himself. He had also dampened the old flour-sacks around
the bird cage to protect the little canary as far as
possible from the heat that he knew would increase now with
every hour. He had made ready to go forward again, but
had paused irresolute again, hesitating for the last time.
"I'm a fool," he growled, scowling back at the range behind
him. "I'm a fool. What's the matter with me? I'm just
walking right away from a million dollars. I know it's
there. No, by God!" he exclaimed, savagely, "I ain't going
McTeague |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: affected courage which her words expressed.
"Ho! ho!" said the Dwarf, "thou vauntest thyself a philosopher?
Yet, shouldst thou not have thought of the danger of intrusting
thyself, young and beautiful, in the power of one so spited
against humanity, as to place his chief pleasure in defacing,
destroying, and degrading her fairest works?"
Isabella, much alarmed, continued to answer with firmness,
"Whatever injuries you may have sustained in the world, you are
incapable of revenging them on one who never wronged you,
nor,wilfully, any other."
"Ay, but, maiden," he continued, his dark eyes flashing with an
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