| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: more unlike his native town, set within sight of the widespread
hillsides, than this low, wooded region, where he felt hidden even
from the heavens by the screening trees and hedgerows. There was
nothing here, when he rose in the deep morning quiet and looked out
on the dewy brambles and rank tufted grass, that seemed to have any
relation with that life centring in Lantern Yard, which had once
been to him the altar-place of high dispensations. The whitewashed
walls; the little pews where well-known figures entered with a
subdued rustling, and where first one well-known voice and then
another, pitched in a peculiar key of petition, uttered phrases at
once occult and familiar, like the amulet worn on the heart; the
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: WARWICK.
Neither the king, nor he that loves him best,
The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,
Dares stir a wing if Warwick shake his bells.
I'll plant Plantagenet, root him up who dares.--
Resolve thee, Richard; claim the English crown.
[Warwick leads York to the throne, who seats himself.]
[Flourish. Enter KING HENRY, CLIFFORD, NORTHUMBERLAND,
WESTMORELAND, EXETER, and the rest.]
KING HENRY.
My lords, look where the sturdy rebel sits,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: whole property to his wife. These papers were either lost or stolen,
or have gone astray during the troubles in Greece,--a country where
registers are not kept as they are in France, and where we have no
consul. Uncertain whether she might not be forced to give up her
fortune, she has lived with the utmost prudence. As for me, I wish to
acquire property which shall be MINE, so as to provide for my wife in
case she is forced to lose hers."
"But why didn't you tell me all this? My dear nephew, you might have
known that I love you enough to pay all your good debts, the debts of
a gentleman. I'll play the traditional uncle now, and revenge myself!"
"Ah! uncle, I know your vengeance! but let me get rich by my own
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