| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: "I!" said the singer. "I a bad singer! I who am the equal of the
greatest performers!"
By this time, the doctor and Vendramin, Capraja, Cataneo, and Genovese
had made their way to the piazzetta. It was midnight. The glittering
bay, outlined by the churches of San Giorgio and San Paulo at the end
of the Giudecca, and the beginning of the Grand Canal, that opens so
mysteriously under the /Dogana/ and the church of Santa Maria della
Salute, lay glorious and still. The moon shone on the barques along
the Riva de' Schiavoni. The waters of Venice, where there is no tide,
looked as if they were alive, dancing with a myriad spangles. Never
had a singer a more splendid stage.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: also nothing more dangerous to the safety of the family.
Harpies will not fail to come running at this signal, showing up
against the green; guided by the position of the web, they will
assuredly find the precious purse; and a strange grub, feasting on
a hundred new-laid eggs, will ruin the establishment. I do not
know these enemies, not having sufficient materials at my disposal
for a register of the parasites; but, from indications gathered
elsewhere, I suspect them.
The Banded Epeira, trusting to the strength of her stuff, fixes her
nest in the sight of all, hangs it on the brushwood, taking no
precautions whatever to hide it. And a bad business it proves for
The Life of the Spider |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: to receive his visitor in a bare and cheerless room, had hastily
quitted a study full of papers, where he worked incessantly, and where
no one was ever admitted, the vicar felt half ashamed at speaking of
Mademoiselle Gamard's provocations to a man who appeared to be so
gravely occupied. But after going through the agony of the mental
deliberations which all humble, undecided, and feeble persons endure
about things of even no importance, he decided, not without much
swelling and beating of the heart, to explain his position to the Abbe
Troubert.
The canon listened in a cold, grave manner, trying, but in vain, to
repress an occasional smile which to more intelligent eyes than those
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