| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: chandeliers of the theatre at night, and ready to lend themselves to
any dirty business in the great city.
"Behold the Romans!" laughed Lousteau; "behold fame incarnate for
actresses and dramatic authors. It is no prettier than our own when
you come to look at it close."
"It is difficult to keep illusions on any subject in Paris," answered
Lucien as they turned in at his door. "There is a tax upon everything
--everything has its price, and anything can be made to order--even
success."
Thirty guests were assembled that evening in Coralie's rooms, her
dining room would not hold more. Lucien had asked Dauriat and the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: would take a pill or a draught - seems likely soon to become the
only form of outdoor existence possible for too many inhabitants of
the British Isles. But a walk without an object, unless in the
most lovely and novel of scenery, is a poor exercise; and as a
recreation, utterly nil. I never knew two young lads go out for a
"constitutional," who did not, if they were commonplace youths,
gossip the whole way about things better left unspoken; or, if they
were clever ones, fall on arguing and brainsbeating on politics or
metaphysics from the moment they left the door, and return with
their wits even more heated and tired than they were when they set
out. I cannot help fancying that Milton made a mistake in a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: light, revealing invisible worlds, yet in a manner always incomplete,
for an intervening veil changes the conditions of vision.
For the next and succeeding day Henri disappeared and no one knew what
had become of him. His power only belonged to him under certain
conditions, and, happily for him, during those two days he was a
private soldier in the service of the demon to whom he owed his
talismanic existence. But at the appointed time, in the evening, he
was waiting--and he had not long to wait--for the carriage. The
mulatto approached Henri, in order to repeat to him in French a phrase
which he seemed to have learned by heart.
"If you wish to come, she told me, you must consent to have your eyes
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
