| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: he paraded idly at Halifax, by which means Fort George was lost,
besides, he derang'd all our mercantile operations, and distress'd
our trade, by a long embargo on the exportation of provisions,
on pretence of keeping supplies from being obtain'd by the enemy,
but in reality for beating down their price in favor of the contractors,
in whose profits, it was said, perhaps from suspicion only, he had
a share. And, when at length the embargo was taken off, by neglecting
to send notice of it to Charlestown, the Carolina fleet was detain'd
near three months longer, whereby their bottoms were so much damaged
by the worm that a great part of them foundered in their passage home.
Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being relieved from
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: hasten to agree with any fancy that Woman may take into her head, and
suggest reasons for doing otherwise, while leaving her free exercise
of her right to change her mind, her intentions, and sentiments
generally as often as she pleases. Victurnien was angry for the first
time, angry with the wrath of a weak man of poetic temperament; it was
a storm of rain and lightning flashes, but no thunder followed. The
angel on whose faith he had risked more than his life, the honor of
his house, was very roughly handled.
"So," said she, "we have come to this after eighteen months of
tenderness! You are unkind, very unkind. Go away!--I do not want to
see you again. I thought that you loved me. You do not."
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: a year, the second a sum of fifty crowns, and the third a thousand
crowns down. After thirty years' service, that is all I have to call
my own."
The woman took advantage of her freedom to come and go, to slip into a
cupboard, whence she could hear the priest.
"I see with pleasure, daughter," said Fontanon, "that you have pious
sentiments; you have a sacred relic round your neck."
Madame Crochard, with a feeble vagueness which seemed to show that she
had not all her wits about her, pulled out the Imperial Cross of the
Legion of Honor. The priest started back at seeing the Emperor's head;
he went up to the penitent again, and she spoke to him, but in such a
|
