| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: evenings of gossip till they can always find an hypothesis to fit
all circumstances, she was wont to reason thus:
"If Father Goriot had daughters of his own as rich as those
ladies who came here seemed to be, he would not be lodging in my
house, on the third floor, at forty-five francs a month; and he
would not go about dressed like a poor man."
No objection could be raised to these inferences. So by the end
of the month of November 1819, at the time when the curtain rises
on this drama, every one in the house had come to have a very
decided opinion as to the poor old man. He had never had either
wife or daughter; excesses had reduced him to this sluggish
 Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Where honors, ever due, for ever shall be paid.
For these deserts, and this high virtue shown,
Ye warlike youths, your heads with garlands crown:
Fill high the goblets with a sparkling flood,
And with deep draughts invoke our common god."
This said, a double wreath Evander twin'd,
And poplars black and white his temples bind.
Then brims his ample bowl. With like design
The rest invoke the gods, with sprinkled wine.
Meantime the sun descended from the skies,
And the bright evening star began to rise.
 Aeneid |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: "You seem very familiar with her mental processes!" flashed
unguardedly from his wife.
He looked up quietly from the pages he was cutting.
"I should like to be," he answered. "She interests me."
II
If there be a distinction in being misunderstood, it was one
denied to Julia Westall when she left her first husband. Every
one was ready to excuse and even to defend her. The world she
adorned agreed that John Arment was "impossible," and hostesses
gave a sigh of relief at the thought that it would no longer be
necessary to ask him to dine.
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