| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: Arabs and Saracens in Egypt. It is open to you to say that these
examples are out of date, that three centuries of public education
have since elapsed, and that the outlines of those ages are more or
less dim figures. Well, young man, do you believe in the last demi-god
of France, in Napoleon? One of his generals was in disgrace all
through his career; Napoleon made him a marshal grudgingly, and never
sent him on service if he could help it. That marshal was Kellermann.
Do you know the reason of the grudge? . . . Kellermann saved France
and the First Consul at Marengo by a brilliant charge; the ranks
applauded under fire and in the thick of the carnage. That heroic
charge was not even mentioned in the bulletin. Napoleon's coolness
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: Very gently, I unhooked one of the pictures from its
nail--Marguerite with her casket of jewels. I crept over to my
coat and took out the magazine, and an odd envelope or two that I
had shoved in. Then I went to the washstand, and damped the
brown paper at the back of the picture all round. Presently I was
able to pull it away. I had already torn out the two
stuck-together pages from the magazine, and now I slipped them
with their precious enclosure between the picture and its brown
paper backing. A little gum from the envelopes helped me to stick
the latter up again. No one would dream the picture had ever been
tampered with. I rehung it on the wall, put the magazine back in
Secret Adversary |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: And o'er your head into the running brook
Fling them, nor look behind: with these will
Upon the heart of Daphnis make essay.
Nothing for gods, nothing for songs cares he.
"Draw from the town, my songs, draw Daphnis home.
Look, look I the very embers of themselves
Have caught the altar with a flickering flame,
While I delay to fetch them: may the sign
Prove lucky! something it must mean, for sure,
And Hylax on the threshold 'gins to bark!
May we believe it, or are lovers still
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