| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: herself that she must get up and struggle on....
Her eyes turned back to the trail across the top of the
Mountain, and in the distance she saw a buggy against
the sky. She knew its antique outline, and the gaunt
build of the old horse pressing forward with lowered
head; and after a moment she recognized the heavy bulk
of the man who held the reins. The buggy was following
the trail and making straight for the pine-wood through
which she had climbed; and she knew at once that the
driver was in search of her. Her first impulse was to
crouch down under the ledge till he had passed; but the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: the Rue des Saints-Peres know nothing of life.
"Ah! if the women of Paris but knew," said Rastignac, as he
devoured Mme. Vauquer's stewed pears (at five for a penny), "they
would come here in search of a lover."
Just then a porter from the Messageries Royales appeared at the
door of the room; they had previously heard the bell ring as the
wicket opened to admit him. The man asked for M. Eugene de
Rastignac, holding out two bags for him to take, and a form of
receipt for his signature. Vautrin's keen glance cut Eugene like
a lash.
"Now you will be able to pay for those fencing lessons and go to
Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: the Philadelphia public library, which, from a small beginning,
is now become so considerable, though I remember to have come
down to near the time of that transaction (1730). I will therefore
begin here with an account of it, which may be struck out if found
to have been already given.
At the time I establish'd myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good
bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston.
In New York and Philad'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold
only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few common school-books. Those
who lov'd reading were oblig'd to send for their books from England;
the members of the Junto had each a few. We had left the alehouse,
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
