| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: that a poor fellow, heavy with sleep, has been drinking tea to keep
himself awake till two o'clock in the morning, all for a chance of
saying a solemn word of advice to you--MARRY! Do not be too
particular; do not brood over your feelings; never mind the sordid
schemes of men that have one foot here and another in the Matifats'
house; do not stop to think at all: Marry!--When a girl marries, it
means that the man whom she marries undertakes to maintain her in a
more or less good position in life, and at any rate her comfort is
assured. I know the world. Girls, mammas, and grandmammas are all of
them hypocrites when they fly off into sentiment over a question of
marriage. Nobody really thinks of anything but a good position. If a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: dread came over her which she could not explain, and that she might be
able to find her path again, she filled her pockets with peas and
lentils to sprinkle on the ground as she went along. On reaching the
entrance to the forest she found the path strewed with ashes, and
these she followed, throwing down some peas on either side of her at
every step she took. She walked the whole day until she came to the
deepest, darkest part of the forest. There she saw a lonely house,
looking so grim and mysterious, that it did not please her at all. She
stepped inside, but not a soul was to be seen, and a great silence
reigned throughout. Suddenly a voice cried:
'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair,
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: "All this was simmering below the surface. The slightest approach at
love-making was made quite on the sly. Not a soul suspected that the
trim little old fogy was smitten with Antonia; and so prudent was the
elderly lover, that no rival could have guessed anything from his
behavior in the reading-room. For a couple of months Croizeau watched
the retired custom-house official; but before the third month was out
he had good reason to believe that his suspicions were groundless. He
exerted his ingenuity to scrape an acquaintance with Denisart, came up
with him in the street, and at length seized his opportunity to
remark, 'It is a fine day, sir!'
"Whereupon the retired official responded with, 'Austerlitz weather,
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