| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: In presence of such aggressions the Republic recovered its pristine
energy. It provided in the first place for the defence of the
threatened departments by giving the responsibility to the loyal and
patriotic portion of the inhabitants. In fact, the government in
Paris, having neither troops nor money to send to the interior, evaded
the difficulty by a parliamentary gasconade. Not being able to send
material aid to the faithful citizens of the insurgent departments, it
gave them its "confidence." Possibly the government hoped that this
measure, by arming the insurgents against each other, would stifle the
insurrection at its birth. This ordinance, the cause of future fatal
reprisals, was thus worded: "Independent companies of troops shall be
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: trail after the steep rock, and that was quite half a mile back.
Still, I had a natural explanation. "He's leading a packhorse.
He's a poor trapper, and walks."
"Packhorses ain't usually shod before and behind," said the
Virginian; and sliding to the ground he touched the footprints.
"They are not four hours old," said he. "This bank's in shadow by
one o'clock, and the sun has not cooked them dusty."
We continued on our way; and although it seemed no very
particular thing to me that a man should choose to walk and lead
his horse for a while,--I often did so to limber my
muscles,--nevertheless I began to catch the Virginian's uncertain
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: his ape's tricks with them. They've suddenly turned moral. They
won't sit at table with me any more." He was spluttering between
anger and sardonic mirth. "It was your friend Scaramouche set them
the example of that. He threatened my life actually. Threatened my
life! Called me... Oh, but what does that matter? What matters is
that the next thing to happen to us will be that the Binet Troupe
will discover it can manage without M. Binet and his daughter.
This scoundrelly bastard I've befriended has little by little
robbed me of everything. It's in his power to-day to rob me of my
troupe, and the knave's ungrateful enough and vile enough to make
use of his power.
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