| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: turned outlaw for the slaying of the dear son of Idomeneus,
Orsilochus, swift of foot, who in wide Crete was the
swiftest of all men that live by bread. Now he would have
despoiled me of all that booty of Troy, for the which I had
endured pain of heart, in passing through the wars of men,
and the grievous waves of the sea, for this cause that I
would not do a favour to his father, and make me his squire
in the land of the Trojans, but commanded other fellowship
of mine own. So I smote him with a bronze-shod spear as he
came home from the field, lying in ambush for him by the
wayside, with one of my companions. And dark midnight held
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: red-hot iron. Then came the last scene of all; among some sixty
convicts in the prison yard of the Bicetre, he was awaiting his turn
to have the irons riveted on his limbs.
"Dear me! I cannot laugh any more! . . ." said Aquilina. "You are very
solemn, dear boy; what can be the matter? The gentleman has gone."
"A word with you, Castanier," said Melmoth when the piece was at an
end, and the attendant was fastening Mme. de la Garde's cloak.
The corridor was crowded, and escape impossible.
"Very well, what is it?"
"No human power can hinder you from taking Aquilina home, and going
next to Versailles, there to be arrested."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: hoarding his gold that man robbed the nation. What enterprises might
have been made fruitful by his useless money! He had barred the way of
industry, and was justly punished."
They pitied the poor murdered servant-woman, but Denise, Tascheron's
sister, who resisted the wiles of lawyers and did not give a single
answer at the trial without long consideration of what she ought to
say, excited the deepest interest. She became in their minds a figure
to be compared (though in another sense) with Jeannie Deans, whose
piety, grace, modesty and beauty she possessed.
Francois Tascheron continued, therefore, to excite the curiosity of
not only all the town but all the department, and a few romantic women
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