| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: began to play. But while they executed the four figures of a square
dance, the Venetian was scenting my thoughts; he guessed the great
interest I felt in him. The dreary, dispirited look died out of his
face, some mysterious hope brightened his features and slid like a
blue flame over his wrinkles. He smiled and wiped his brow, that
fearless, terrible brow of his, and at length grew gay like a man
mounted on his hobby.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"Eighty-two."
"How long have you been blind?"
"For very nearly fifty years," he said, and there was that in his tone
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: wainscoting. An old piano, standing beneath a barometer, was covered
with a pyramid of old books and boxes. On either side of the yellow
marble mantelpiece, in Louis XV. style, stood a tapestry armchair. The
clock represented a temple of Vesta; and the whole room smelled musty,
as it was on a lower level than the garden.
On the first floor was Madame's bed-chamber, a large room papered in a
flowered design and containing the portrait of Monsieur dressed in the
costume of a dandy. It communicated with a smaller room, in which
there were two little cribs, without any mattresses. Next, came the
parlour (always closed), filled with furniture covered with sheets.
Then a hall, which led to the study, where books and papers were piled
A Simple Soul |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: a step farther in a criminal career. Manning suffered from
nerves almost as badly as Macbeth; after the deed he sought to
drown the prickings of terror and remorse by heavy drinking
Mrs. Manning was never troubled with any feelings of this kind;
after the murder of O'Connor the gratification of her sexual
passion seemed uppermost in her mind; and she met the
consequences of her crime fearlessly. Burke and Hare were a
couple of ruffians, tempted by what must have seemed almost
fabulous wealth to men of their wretched poverty to commit a
series of cruel murders. Hare, with his queer, Mephistophelian
countenance, was the wickeder of the two. Burke became haunted
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
