| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: when that world was about to fall. Like other young men, he was at
first more attracted by glory and science than by the vanities of
life. He frequented the society of scientific men, particularly
Lavoisier, who at that time was better known to the world for his
enormous fortune as a "fermier-general" than for his discoveries in
chemistry,--though later the great chemist was to eclipse the man of
wealth.
Balthazar grew enamored of the science which Lavoisier cultivated, and
became his devoted disciple; but he was young, and handsome as
Helvetius, and before long the Parisian women taught him to distil wit
and love exclusively. Though he had studied chemistry with such ardor
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: forced to write popular plays to save his theatre from ruin, he did it
mutinously, calling the plays "As _You_ Like It," and "Much Ado About
Nothing." All the same, he did it so well that to this day these two
genial vulgarities are the main Shakespearian stock-in-trade of our
theatres. Later on Burbage's power and popularity as an actor enabled
Shakespear to free himself from the tyranny of the box office, and to
express himself more freely in plays consisting largely of monologue
to be spoken by a great actor from whom the public would stand a good
deal. The history of Shakespear's tragedies has thus been the history
of a long line of famous actors, from Burbage and Betterton to Forbes
Robertson; and the man of whom we are told that "when he would have
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: in that direction as Loge's booming threats grew fainter. He saw
that two oarsmen, near the eastern and farther side of the canal,
had allowed the dainty, varnished little craft they were supposed
to propel to come to a rest in spite of the evident displeasure
of a man who sat in its stern. This third man was the same that
Cleggett had seen on the deck of the Annabel Lee with a spy
glass, and again that same morning driving the two almost nude
figures up and down the canal.
The two oarsmen, Cleggett saw with surprise, rowed with shackled
feet; their feet were, indeed, chained to the boat itself. About
the wrists of each were steel bands; fixed to these bands were
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