| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: " 'That is the time,' said Gobseck, 'after 'Change, at five o'clock.
Good, you will see me Wednesdays and Saturdays. We will talk over
business like a pair of friends. Aha! I am gay sometimes. Just give me
the wing of a partridge and a glass of champagne, and we will have our
chat together. I know a great many things that can be told now at this
distance of time; I will teach you to know men, and what is more--
women!'
" 'Oh! a partridge and a glass of champagne if you like.'
" 'Don't do anything foolish, or I shall lose my faith in you. And
don't set up housekeeping in a grand way. Just one old general
servant. I will come and see that you keep your health. I have capital
 Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of a great city--and defending them with drawn revolver, a
French count and soldier of fortune, while in their wake
streamed a yelling pack of half-caste demons clothed in the
habiliments of sixteenth century Japan, and wielding the
barbarous spears of the savage head-hunting aborigines whose
fierce blood coursed in their veins with that of the descendants
of Taka-mi-musu-bi-no-kami.
Three-quarters of the distance had been covered in safety
before the samurai came within safe spear range of the trio.
Theriere, seeing the danger to the girl, dropped back a few
paces hoping to hold the brown warriors from her. The
 The Mucker |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: the spectators; how on another occasion he had saved Alcibiades' life; how
at the battle of Delium, after the defeat, he might be seen stalking about
like a pelican, rolling his eyes as Aristophanes had described him in the
Clouds. He is the most wonderful of human beings, and absolutely unlike
anyone but a satyr. Like the satyr in his language too; for he uses the
commonest words as the outward mask of the divinest truths.
When Alcibiades has done speaking, a dispute begins between him and Agathon
and Socrates. Socrates piques Alcibiades by a pretended affection for
Agathon. Presently a band of revellers appears, who introduce disorder
into the feast; the sober part of the company, Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and
others, withdraw; and Aristodemus, the follower of Socrates, sleeps during
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