| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: a freak of the brush, but which to him suddenly realized the
theories of the ideal beauty which every artist creates for
himself and whence his art proceeds. The features of the unknown
belonged, so to say, to the refined and delicate type of
Prudhon's school, but had also the poetic sentiment which Girodet
gave to the inventions of his phantasy. The freshness of the
temples, the regular arch of the eyebrows, the purity of outline,
the virginal innocence so plainly stamped on every feature of her
countenance, made the girl a perfect creature. Her figure was
slight and graceful, and frail in form. Her dress, though simple
and neat, revealed neither wealth nor penury.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: and I with him, but keeping one pace behind.
'Teule,' he said at length, 'tell me of your countrymen, and why
they have come to these shores. See that you speak truth.'
'They are no countrymen of mine, O Montezuma,' I answered, 'though
my mother was one of them.'
'Did I not bid you speak the truth, Teule? If your mother was one
of them, must you not also be of them; for are you not of your
mother's bone and blood?'
'As the king pleases,' I answered bowing. Then I began and told
him of the Spaniards--of their country, their greatness, their
cruelty and their greed of gold, and he listened eagerly, though I
Montezuma's Daughter |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: For I must ride to Venice instantly.
BARDI
To Venice, Madam?
DUCHESS
Not a word of this,
Go, go at once. [Exit COUNT BARDI.]
A moment, my Lord Justice.
If, as thou sayest it, this is the law -
Nay, nay, I doubt not that thou sayest right,
Though right be wrong in such a case as this -
May I not by the virtue of mine office
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