| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: the great beauties to which she owed her celebrity.
Certainly Diane did not look to be more than twenty-five years old.
Four years of solitude and repose had restored the freshness of her
complexion. Besides, there are moments when the desire to please gives
an increase of beauty to women. The will is not without influence on
the variations of the face. If violent emotions have the power to
yellow the white tones of persons of bilious and melancholy
temperament, and to green lymphatic faces, shall we not grant to
desire, hope, and joy, the faculty of clearing the skin, giving
brilliancy to the eye, and brightening the glow of beauty with a light
as jocund as that of a lovely morning? The celebrated faintness of the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: nobody has ever mentioned in my work is the organ of life."
"I see - it's some idea ABOUT life, some sort of philosophy.
Unless it be," I added with the eagerness of a thought perhaps
still happier, "some kind of game you're up to with your style,
something you're after in the language. Perhaps it's a preference
for the letter P!" I ventured profanely to break out. "Papa,
potatoes, prunes - that sort of thing?" He was suitably indulgent:
he only said I hadn't got the right letter. But his amusement was
over; I could see he was bored. There was nevertheless something
else I had absolutely to learn. "Should you be able, pen in hand,
to state it clearly yourself - to name it, phrase it, formulate
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: is telling the truth which mythology had corrupted.
The world, like a child, has readily, and for the most part unhesitatingly,
accepted the tale of the Island of Atlantis. In modern times we hardly
seek for traces of the submerged continent; but even Mr. Grote is inclined
to believe in the Egyptian poem of Solon of which there is no evidence in
antiquity; while others, like Martin, discuss the Egyptian origin of the
legend, or like M. de Humboldt, whom he quotes, are disposed to find in it
a vestige of a widely-spread tradition. Others, adopting a different vein
of reflection, regard the Island of Atlantis as the anticipation of a still
greater island--the Continent of America. 'The tale,' says M. Martin,
'rests upon the authority of the Egyptian priests; and the Egyptian priests
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