| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: possibly suppose that I was aware of her unhappiness! that it was my object
to make my own child miserable, and that I had forbidden her speaking to
you on the subject from a fear of your interrupting the diabolical scheme?
Do you think me destitute of every honest, every natural feeling? Am I
capable of consigning HER to everlasting: misery whose welfare it is my
first earthly duty to promote? The idea is horrible!" "What, then, was your
intention when you insisted on her silence?" "Of what use, my dear sister,
could be any application to you, however the affair might stand? Why should
I subject you to entreaties which I refused to attend to myself? Neither
for your sake nor for hers, nor for my own, could such a thing be
desirable. When my own resolution was taken I could nor wish for the
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: naturally have a need for action, for deeds at variance with the
pacific pastoral scene. He was evidently so good-natured, however,
that he accepted the inglorious hour for what it was worth. Paul
Overt shared it with him and with his companions for the next
twenty minutes; the latter looked at him and he looked at them
without knowing much who they were, while the talk went on without
much telling him even what it meant. It seemed indeed to mean
nothing in particular; it wandered, with casual pointless pauses
and short terrestrial flights, amid names of persons and places -
names which, for our friend, had no great power of evocation. It
was all sociable and slow, as was right and natural of a warm
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: street, where they immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no
doubt, distressed her at being seen in undress; she started back, the
worn pulley gave way, and the sash fell with the rapid run, which in
our day has earned for this artless invention of our forefathers an
odious name, /Fenetre a la Guillotine/. The vision had disappeared. To
the young man the most radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by
a cloud.
During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected
the slight windows of the shop of the "Cat and Racket" had been
removed as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back
against the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with
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