| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: roughly iron-bound; the upper half is fastened back within the room,
the lower half, fitted with a spring-bell, swings continually to and
fro. Air and light reach the damp den within, either through the upper
half of the door, or through an open space between the ceiling and a
low front wall, breast-high, which is closed by solid shutters that
are taken down every morning, put up every evening, and held in place
by heavy iron bars.
This wall serves as a counter for the merchandise. No delusive display
is there; only samples of the business, whatever it may chance to be,
--such, for instance, as three or four tubs full of codfish and salt,
a few bundles of sail-cloth, cordage, copper wire hanging from the
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: The sun dropped behind the mountains, and their shadow commenced
to climb the opposite range. I glanced at my watch. We had not
more than a half hour of daylight left.
Fifteen minutes of this passed. It began to look as though our
long and monotonous wait had been quite in vain; when, right
below us, and perhaps five hundred yards away, four great black
bodies fed leisurely from the bushes. Three of them we could see
plainly. Two were bulls of fair size. The fourth, half concealed
in the brush, was by far the biggest of the lot.
In order to reach them we would have to slip down the face of the
hill on which we sat, cross the stream jungle at the bottom,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: him. 'If you think that you can prejudice me against this
gentleman--'
'That is precisely what I am going to do! And a little more than
that!' he answered.
'You will be only wasting your breath!' she retorted.
'Wait! Wait, Mademoiselle---until you have heard,' he said.
'For I swear to you that if ever a black-hearted scoundrel, a
dastardly sneaking spy trod the earth, it is this fellow! And I
am going to expose him. Your own eyes and your own ears shall
persuade you. I am not particular, but I would not eat, I would
not drink, I would not sit down with him! I would rather be
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