| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: is small and slender, and she does not put it forth; her eyes, far
from being dulled like those of so many Parisian women, have a gentle
glow which becomes quite magical if, by chance, she is animated. A
soul is then divined behind that rather indefinite form. If she takes
an interest in the conversation she displays a grace which is
otherwise buried beneath the precautions of cold demeanor, and then
she is charming. She does not seek success, but she obtains it. We
find that for which we do not seek: that saying is so often true that
some day it will be turned into a proverb. It is, in fact, the moral
of this adventure, which I should not allow myself to tell if it were
not echoing at the present moment through all the salons of Paris.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: After listening to the general's complaints the Comte de Casteran
invited the bishop, the attorney-general, the colonel of the
gendarmerie, counsellor Sarcus, and the general commanding the
division to meet him the next day at breakfast.
The attorney-general, Baron Bourlac (so famous in the Chanterie and
Rifael suits), was one of those men well-known to all governments, who
attach themselves to power, no matter in whose hands it is, and who
make themselves invaluable by such devotion. Having owed his elevation
in the first place to his fanaticism for the Emperor, he now owed the
retention of his official rank to his inflexible character and the
conscientiousness with which he fulfilled his duties. He who once
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: eyes became fixed stonily on Davidson. The woman came forward,
having little more on her than a loose chintz wrapper and straw
slippers on her bare feet. Her head was tied up Malay fashion in a
red handkerchief, with a mass of loose hair hanging under it
behind. Her professional, gay, European feathers had literally
dropped off her in the course of these two years, but a long
necklace of amber beads hung round her uncovered neck. It was the
only ornament she had left; Bamtz had sold all her poor-enough
trinkets during the flight from Saigon - when their association
began.
"She came forward, past the table, into the light, with her usual
Within the Tides |
