| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: life. To him this journey was a trip, an agreeable excur-
sion in which he employed his enforced holiday.
"Decidedly," said he, "this is pleasanter than sitting
twelve hours a day, perched on a stool, working the manip-
ulator!"
Michael had managed to get Nicholas to make his horse
quicken his pace. To obtain this result, he had confided
to Nicholas that Nadia and he were on their way to join
their father, exiled at Irkutsk, and that they were very
anxious to get there. Certainly, it would not do to over-
work the horse, for very probably they would not be able
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Fails the whole man, and less and less of life
In every region lingers.
And besides,
If soul immortal is, and winds its way
Into the body at the birth of man,
Why can we not remember something, then,
Of life-time spent before? why keep we not
Some footprints of the things we did of, old?
But if so changed hath been the power of mind,
That every recollection of things done
Is fallen away, at no o'erlong remove
Of The Nature of Things |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: the other side of public fame, the follies of banking, the emptiness
of eloquence! The orator only spoke for show; to her he had behaved
extremely ill. Thuillier was indignant. "None but stupid fellows know
how to love," he said; "take me!" That handsome Thuillier was
henceforth supposed to be paying court to Madame Colleville, and was
rated as one of her "attentives,"--a word in vogue during the Empire.
"Ha! you are after my wife," said Colleville, laughing. "Take care;
she'll leave you in the lurch, like all the rest."
A rather clever speech, by which Colleville saved his marital dignity.
From 1820 to 1821, Thuillier, in virtue of his title as friend of the
family, helped Colleville, who had formerly helped him; so much so,
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