The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: After two months' seclusion the Breton had finished four pictures.
Again he asked counsel of Schinner, this time adding Bridau to the
invitation. The two painters saw in three of these pictures a servile
imitation of Dutch landscapes and interiors by Metzu, in the fourth a
copy of Rembrandt's "Lesson of Anatomy."
"Still imitating!" said Schinner. "Ah! Fougeres can't manage to be
original."
"You ought to do something else than painting," said Bridau.
"What?" asked Fougeres.
"Fling yourself into literature."
Fougeres lowered his head like a sheep when it rains. Then he asked
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: sent, sir, by the Company of Undertakers, says he, and they were
employed by the honest gentleman, who is executor to the good
Doctor departed; and our rascally porter, I believe, is fallen
fast asleep with the black cloth and sconces, or he had been
here, and we might have been tacking up by this time. Sir, says
I, pray be advis'd by a friend, and make the best of your speed
out of my doors, for I hear my wife's voice, (which by the by, is
pretty distinguishable) and in that corner of the room stands a
good cudgel, which somebody has felt e're now; if that light in
her hands, and she know the business you come about, without
consulting the stars, I can assure you it will be employed very
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: of men by the door, as swiftly as the necessary caution
would allow; Catherine, however, kept close at her side,
and linked her arm too firmly within her friend's to be torn
asunder by any common effort of a struggling assembly.
But to her utter amazement she found that to proceed
along the room was by no means the way to disengage
themselves from the crowd; it seemed rather to increase
as they went on, whereas she had imagined that when once
fairly within the door, they should easily find seats
and be able to watch the dances with perfect convenience.
But this was far from being the case, and though by
 Northanger Abbey |