| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: on earth? He longed for forgiveness, he threw himself before her, he
kissed her feet, he pleaded, he wept. Two whole hours the unhappy
young man spent in all kinds of follies, only to meet the same cold
face, while the great silent tears dropping one by one, were dried as
soon as they fell lest the unworthy lover should try to wipe them
away. The Duchess was acting a great agony, one of those hours which
stamp the woman who passes through them as something august and
sacred.
Two more hours went by. By this time the Count had gained possession
of Diane's hand; it felt cold and spiritless. The beautiful hand, with
all the treasures in its grasp, might have been supple wood; there was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: one knows a friend, but he was wounded at having served as sustenance
for it. If his presumption was right, he had been outraged in the most
sensitive part of him. The mere suspicion filled him with fury, he
broke out with the roar of a tiger who has been the sport of a deer,
the cry of a tiger which united a brute's strength with the
intelligence of the demon.
"I say, what is the matter with you?" asked Paul.
"Nothing!"
"I should be sorry, if you were to be asked whether you had anything
against me and were to reply with a /nothing/ like that! It would be a
sure case of fighting the next day."
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: mat a head already defeatured by disease. The two tragic triflers
fled without hesitation for their boat, screaming on Taveeta to
make haste; they came aboard with all speed of oars, raised
anchor and crowded sail upon the ship with blows and curses, and
were at sea again--and again drunk--before sunset. A week after,
and the last of the two had been committed to the deep. Herrick
asked Taveeta where that island was, and he replied that, by
what he gathered of folks' talk as they went up together from
the beach, he supposed it must be one of the Paumotus. This
was in itself probable enough, for the Dangerous Archipelago
had been swept that year from east to west by devastating
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