| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: all who saw him by its delicacy and sweetness, was warm in the flesh-
tints, though without color, and relieved by a small moustache and
imperial a la Mazarin. Without this evidence of virility he might have
resembled a young woman in disguise, so refined was the shape of his
face and the cut of his lips, so feminine the transparent ivory of a
set of teeth, regular enough to have seemed artificial. Add to these
womanly points a habit of speech as gentle as the expression of the
face; as gentle, too, as the blue eyes with their Turkish eyelids, and
you will readily understand how it was that the minister occasionally
called his young secretary Mademoiselle de La Briere. The full, clear
forehead, well framed by abundant black hair, was dreamy, and did not
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: He came over this evening: 'Let me stay the night,' says he. . .
. Well, we had a glass, to be sure. . . . The wife got the
samovar -- she was going to give the old fellow a cup of tea, and
in an unlucky hour she set the samovar in the entrance. The
sparks from the chimney must have blown straight up to the
thatch; that's how it was. We were almost burnt ourselves. And
the old fellow's cap has been burnt; what a shame!"
And the sheet of iron was struck indefatigably, and the bells
kept ringing in the church the other side of the river. In the
glow of the fir e Olga, breathless, looking with horror at the
red sheep and the pink doves flying in the smoke, kept running
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: ought to be glad to get them."
"I'll transform you all into scorpions!" cried the King, angrily, and
began waving his arms and muttering magic words.
But none of the people became scorpions, so the King stopped and
looked at them in surprise.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Why, you are not wearing your magic belt," replied the Chief Steward,
after looking the King over carefully. "Where is it? What have you
done with it?"
The Nome King clapped his hand to his waist, and his rock colored face
turned white as chalk.
Ozma of Oz |
