| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: from routine. The old gentleman, who had come to Paris from Touraine
to satisfy his curiosity about Madame Firmiani, and found it not at
all assuaged by the Parisian gossip which he heard, was a man of honor
and breeding. His sole heir was a nephew, whom he greatly loved, in
whose interests he planted his poplars. When a man thinks without
annoyance about his heir, and watches the trees grow daily finer for
his future benefit, affection grows too with every blow of the spade
around her roots. Though this phenomenal feeling is not common, it is
still to be met with in Touraine.
This cherished nephew, named Octave de Camps, was a descendant of the
famous Abbe de Camps, so well known to bibliophiles and learned men,--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: all day. I could not sleep, and I have a frightful headache."
"Shall I go away and let you go to bed?"
"Oh, you can stay. If I want to go to bed I don't mind your being
here."
At that moment there was a ring.
"Who is coming now?" she said, with an impatient movement.
A few minutes after there was another ring.
"Isn't there any one to go to the door? I shall have to go." She
got up and said to me, "Wait here."
She went through the rooms, and I heard her open the outer door.
I listened.
Camille |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: setting foot outside Athens, which, as far as human affairs go, is as
sound and durable a security as possible.
[15] "A good substantial property."
[16] Or, "on the other hand, I affirm that the outlay necessary to
form the capital for my present project will be more remunerative
than any other that can be named." As to the scheme itself see
Grote, "Plato," III. ch. xxxix.; Boeckh, op. cit. (pp. 4, 37, 136,
600 seq. Eng. tr.) Cf. Demosth. "de Sym." for another scheme, 354
B.C., which shows the "sound administrative and practical
judgment" of the youthful orator as compared with "the benevolent
dreams and ample public largess in which Xenophon here indulges."
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