| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: This Cardinal his time hath waited,
And with his wordes slyhe and queinte,
The whiche he cowthe wysly peinte,
He schop this clerk of which I telle
Toward the Pope forto duelle,
So that withinne his chambre anyht
He lai, and was a prive wyht
Toward the Pope on nyhtes tide.
Mai noman fle that schal betide. 2860
This Cardinal, which thoghte guile,
Upon a day whan he hath while
Confessio Amantis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: her engagement she had been nothing more than Mademoiselle Million.
Her poverty, well known to all, became a sentinel defending the
approaches to the Chalet fully as well as the prudence of the
Latournelles or the vigilance of Dumay. The talk of the town ran for a
time on Mademoiselle Mignon's position only to insult her.
"Poor girl! what will become of her?--an old maid, of course."
"What a fate! to have had the world at her feet; to have had the
chance to marry Francisque Althor,--and now, nobody willing to take
her!"
"After a life of luxury, to come down to such poverty--"
And these insults were not uttered in secret or left to Modeste's
Modeste Mignon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: would turn away to the portrait of his dead Lise, who with hair curled
a la grecque looked tenderly and gaily at him out of the gilt frame.
She did not now say those former terrible words to him, but looked
simply, merrily, and inquisitively at him. And Prince Andrew, crossing
his arms behind him, long paced the room, now frowning, now smiling,
as he reflected on those irrational, inexpressible thoughts, secret as
a crime, which altered his whole life and were connected with
Pierre, with fame, with the girl at the window, the oak, and woman's
beauty and love. And if anyone came into his room at such moments he
was particularly cold, stern, and above all unpleasantly logical.
"My dear," Princess Mary entering at such a moment would say,
War and Peace |
