| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: alone in the midst of friends who had become his enemies from the
moment that he showed his intention of ruling them. His staff of
writers hated him "pro tem.," ready to hold out a hand to him and
console him in case of a fall, ready to adore him in case of success.
So goes the world of literature. No one is really liked but an
inferior. Every man's hand is against him who is likely to rise. This
wide-spread envy doubles the chances of common minds who excite
neither envy nor suspicion, who make their way like moles, and, fools
though they be, find themselves gazetted in the "Moniteur," for three
or four places, while men of talent are still struggling at the door
to keep each other out.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: that morning, and the slight bitterness in his lips grew intense
as he listened. When Fred had ended, there was a pause of nearly
a minute, during which Mr. Vincy replaced a book in his desk and turned
the key emphatically. Then he looked at his son steadily, and said--
"So you've made up your mind at last, sir?"
"Yes, father."
"Very well; stick to it. I've no more to say. You've thrown away
your education, and gone down a step in life, when I had given you
the means of rising, that's all."
"I am very sorry that we differ, father. I think I can be quite
as much of a gentleman at the work I have undertaken, as if I had
Middlemarch |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: was forging steadily toward me. I set off after Perry,
though at a somewhat more decorous pace. It was evident
that the massive beast pursuing us was not built for speed,
so all that I considered necessary was to gain the trees
sufficiently ahead of it to enable me to climb to the safety
of some great branch before it came up.
Notwithstanding our danger I could not help but laugh at
Perry's frantic capers as he essayed to gain the safety
of the lower branches of the trees he now had reached.
The stems were bare for a distance of some fifteen feet--at
least on those trees which Perry attempted to ascend,
At the Earth's Core |
