| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: The time had come but he did not open the door. All was still; and
instead of surrendering to the reasonable exigencies of life he
stepped out, with a rebelling heart, into the darkness of the house.
It was the abode of an impenetrable night; as though indeed the last
day had come and gone, leaving him alone in a darkness that has no
to-morrow. And looming vaguely below the woman of marble, livid and
still like a patient phantom, held out in the night a cluster of
extinguished lights.
His obedient thought traced for him the image of an uninterrupted
life, the dignity and the advantages of an uninterrupted success;
while his rebellious heart beat violently within his breast, as if
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: see a glimpse of an answer to this riddle."
"Blondet has roughly given you the account of Nucingen's first two
suspensions of payment; now for the third, with full details.--After
the peace of 1815, Nucingen grasped an idea which some of us only
fully understood later, to wit, that capital is a power only when you
are very much richer than other people. In his own mind, he was
jealous of the Rothschilds. He had five millions of francs, he wanted
ten. He knew a way to make thirty millions with ten, while with five
he could only make fifteen. So he made up his mind to operate a third
suspension of payment. About that time, the great man hit on the idea
of indemnifying his creditors with paper of purely fictitious value
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: "The girl goes about alone with her foreigners. As to what
happens further, you must apply elsewhere for information.
She has picked up half a dozen of the regular Roman
fortune hunters, and she takes them about to people's houses.
When she comes to a party she brings with her a gentleman
with a good deal of manner and a wonderful mustache."
"And where is the mother?"
"I haven't the least idea. They are very dreadful people."
Winterbourne meditated a moment. "They are very ignorant--
very innocent only. Depend upon it they are not bad."
"They are hopelessly vulgar," said Mrs. Costello. "Whether or no being
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