| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: had only just come out of the house, and any human figure standing
at ease under the archway in the early afternoon was as certain
to attract companionship as a pigeon which has found something worth
peeking at. In this case there was no material object to feed upon,
but the eye of reason saw a probability of mental sustenance in the
shape of gossip. Mr. Hopkins, the meek-mannered draper opposite,
was the first to act on this inward vision, being the more ambitious
of a little masculine talk because his customers were chiefly women.
Mr. Bambridge was rather curt to the draper, feeling that Hopkins
was of course glad to talk to HIM, but that he was not going
to waste much of his talk on Hopkins. Soon, however, there was
Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: already been thought of and maturely weighed. I have no commission a
second time to balance conflicting arguments. From the people I demand
submission;--and from you, their leaders and princes, I demand counsel
and support, as pledges of this unconditional duty.
Egmont. Demand our heads, and your object Is attained; to a noble soul it
must be indifferent whether he stoop his neck to such a yoke, or lay it
upon the block. I have spoken much to little purpose. I have agitated the
air, but accomplished nothing.
[Enter Ferdinand.
Ferdinand. Pardon my intrusion. Here is a letter, the bearer of which
urgently demands an answer.
Egmont |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: necessary to a household which, without his devotion to its interests,
would infallibly have gone to ruin. What fortune can bear the strain
of reckless prodigality? Clementine, brought up by a spendthrift
father, knew nothing of the management of a household which the women
of the present day, however rich or noble they are, are often
compelled to undertake themselves. How few, in these days, keep a
steward. Adam, on the other hand, son of one of the great Polish lords
who let themselves be preyed on by the Jews, and are wholly incapable
of managing even the wreck of their vast fortunes (for fortunes are
vast in Poland), was not of a nature to check his own fancies or those
of his wife. Left to himself he would probably have been ruined before
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