| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: future brother-in-law reached the Palet Gate. The unwonted movement
made honest Postel uneasy; he opened the window, and looking through
the Venetian shutters, he saw a light in Eve's room.
"What can be happening at the Chardons'?" thought he, and seeing
Lucien come in, he called out to him--
"What is the matter, sonny? Do you want me to do anything?"
"No, sir," returned the poet; "but as you are our friend, I can tell
you about it; my mother has just given her consent to my sister's
engagement to David Sechard."
For all answer, Postel shut the window with a bang, in despair that he
had not asked for Mlle. Chardon earlier.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: reparation was impossible, and promptly I decided that it was not
even necessary, that all had happened in accordance with my wish,
and that I had fulfilled my desire. I waited until she fell, and
until the nurse, exclaiming, 'Oh, my God!' ran to her; then only
I threw away the dagger and went out of the room.
"'I must not be agitated. I must be conscious of what I am
doing,' I said to myself, looking neither at her nor at the old
nurse. The latter cried and called the maid. I passed through
the hall, and, after having sent the maid, started for my study.
"'What shall I do now?' I asked myself.
"And immediately I understood what I should do. Directly after
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: to do. Boats gone, decks swept clean, cabin gutted, men
without a stitch but what they stood in, stores spoiled,
ship strained. We put her head for home, and--would
you believe it? The wind came east right in our teeth.
It blew fresh, it blew continuously. We had to beat up
every inch of the way, but she did not leak so badly,
the water keeping comparatively smooth. Two hours'
pumping in every four is no joke--but it kept her afloat
as far as Falmouth.
"The good people there live on casualties of the sea,
and no doubt were glad to see us. A hungry crowd of
Youth |
