| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her
approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore,
to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon
round the neck of the Cat. By this means we should always know
when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the
neighbourhood."
This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse
got up and said: "That is all very well, but who is to bell the
Cat?" The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the
old mouse said:
"It is easy to propose impossible remedies."
Aesop's Fables |
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: vulgar!" He had hold of the tail of something; he would pull hard,
pull it right out. He pumped me dry on Vereker's strange
confidence and, pronouncing me the luckiest of mortals, mentioned
half a dozen questions he wished to goodness I had had the gumption
to put. Yet on the other hand he didn't want to be told too much -
it would spoil the fun of seeing what would come. The failure of
MY fun was at the moment of our meeting not complete, but I saw it
ahead, and Corvick saw that I saw it. I, on my side, saw likewise
that one of the first things he would do would be to rush off with
my story to Gwendolen.
On the very day after my talk with him I was surprised by the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: seigneur, all rich men, also all the burghers, possessed at the most
two garments for each season, which lasted their lifetime and beyond
it. These garments were bequeathed to their children. Consequently the
clause in the marriage-contract relating to arms and clothes, which in
these days is almost a dead letter because of the small value of
wardrobes that need constant renewing, was then of much importance.
Great costs brought with them solidity. The toilet of a woman
constituted a large capital; it was reckoned among the family
possessions, and was kept in those enormous chests which threaten to
break through the floors of our modern houses. The jewels of a woman
of 1840 would have been the /undress/ ornaments of a great lady in
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