| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: too good for a missionary.
The common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink
to excess when they visit one another; nor can there be a greater
offence against good manners than to let the guests go away sober:
their liquor is always presented by a servant, who drinks first
himself, and then gives the cup to the company, in the order of
their quality.
The meaner sort of people here dress themselves very plain; they
only wear drawers, and a thick garment of cotton, that covers the
rest of their bodies: the people of quality, especially those that
frequent the court, run into the contrary extreme, and ruin
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: but the stone palace has outlived these charges. For
fifty weeks together, it is no more than a show for
tourists and a museum of old furniture; but on the fifty-
first, behold the palace reawakened and mimicking its
past. The Lord Commissioner, a kind of stage sovereign,
sits among stage courtiers; a coach and six and
clattering escort come and go before the gate; at night,
the windows are lighted up, and its near neighbours, the
workmen, may dance in their own houses to the palace
music. And in this the palace is typical. There is a
spark among the embers; from time to time the old volcano
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: to clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz,
who took a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her
one morning on business.
"My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying."
"I can marry very often, happily, my dear."
"When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I
need not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got
into trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is
an honest notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it
dark. He wants to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he
will give her a fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs--for he
The Muse of the Department |
