| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: to vague and sinister thoughts, to romantic curiosity, and a religious
dread, not unlike the deep emotion which comes upon us when we go into
a dark church at night and discern a feeble light glimmering under a
lofty vault--a dim figure glides across--the sweep of a gown or of a
priest's cassock is audible--and we shiver! La Grande Breteche, with
its rank grasses, its shuttered windows, its rusty iron-work, its
locked doors, its deserted rooms, suddenly rose before me in fantastic
vividness. I tried to get into the mysterious dwelling to search out
the heart of this solemn story, this drama which had killed three
persons.
"Rosalie became in my eyes the most interesting being in Vendome. As I
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: His wife pondered this reply for some time, and at last decided
that if Ivan was a fool she also was one, and that it would be
useless to go contrary to her husband, thinking affectionately of
the old proverb that "where the needle goes there goes the thread
also." She therefore cast aside her magnificent robes, and,
putting them into the trunk with Ivan's, dressed herself in cheap
clothing and joined her dumb sister-in-law, with the intention of
learning to work. She succeeded so well that she soon became a
great help to Ivan.
Seeing that Ivan was a fool, all the wise men left the kingdom
and only the fools remained. They had no money, their wealth
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: those noble flights of steps, standing by a vase with medallions in
bas-relief, a negro boy swathed about the loins with scarlet stuff,
and holding in one hand a parasol over the Duchess' head, and in the
other the train of her long skirt, while she listened to Emilio Memmi.
And how far grander the Venetian would have looked in such a dress as
the Senators wore whom Titian painted.
But alas! in this fairy palace, not unlike that of the Peschieri at
Genoa, the Duchess Cataneo obeyed the edicts of Victorine and the
Paris fashions. She had on a muslin dress and broad straw hat, pretty
shot silk shoes, thread lace stockings that a breath of air would have
blown away; and over her shoulders a black lace shawl. But the thing
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