| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: She was shimmering with lace and all the dainty trifles required by
fashion. Her hair, dressed /a la Sevigne/, gave her a look of
elegance; a necklace of pearls lay on her bosom like bubbles on snow.
"What is the matter, monsieur?" said the Countess, putting out her
foot from below her skirt to rest it on a velvet cushion. "I thought,
I hoped, I was quite forgotten."
"If I should reply /Never/, you would refuse to believe me," said
Lousteau, who remained standing, or walked about the room, chewing the
flowers he plucked from the flower-stands full of plants that scented
the room.
For a moment silence reigned. Madame de la Baudraye, studying
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: 2_Kings 5: 23 And Naaman said: 'Be content, take two talents.' And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of raiment, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bore them before him.
2_Kings 5: 24 And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and deposited them in the house; and he let the men go, and they departed.
2_Kings 5: 25 But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him: 'Whence comest thou, Gehazi?' And he said: 'Thy servant went no whither.'
2_Kings 5: 26 And he said unto him: 'Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned back from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and maid-servants?
2_Kings 5: 27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever.' And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
2_Kings 6: 1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha: 'Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee is too strait for us.
2_Kings 6: 2 Let us go, we pray thee, unto the Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell.' And he answered: 'Go ye.'
2_Kings 6: 3 And one said: 'Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants.' And he answered: 'I will go.'
2_Kings 6: 4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.
The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: sight of it; and the indignity with which she was treated,
striking at that instant on her mind with peculiar force,
made her for a short time sensible only of resentment.
Eleanor seemed now impelled into resolution and speech.
"You must write to me, Catherine," she cried;
"you must let me hear from you as soon as possible.
Till I know you to be safe at home, I shall not have
an hour's comfort. For one letter, at all risks,
all hazards, I must entreat. Let me have the satisfaction
of knowing that you are safe at Fullerton, and have found
your family well, and then, till I can ask for your
Northanger Abbey |
