| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: The duke seated himself on a chair of state placed under a "solium,"
or dais of carved word, above a platform raised by several steps, from
which, in certain provinces, the great seigneurs still delivered
judgment on their vassals,--a vestige of feudality which disappeared
under the reign of Richelieu. These thrones, like the warden's benches
of the churches, have now become objects of collection as curiosities.
When Etienne was placed beside his father on that raised platform, he
shuddered at feeling himself the centre to which all eyes turned.
"Do not tremble," said the duke, bending his bald head to his son's
ear; "these people are only our servants."
Through the dusky light produced by the setting sun, the rays of which
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: the floodgates of my soul and poured out the dammed-up fury that
was foaming and swelling within.
'Markham,' said he, in his usual quiet tone, 'why do you quarrel
with your friends, because you have been disappointed in one
quarter? You have found your hopes defeated; but how am I to blame
for it? I warned you beforehand, you know, but you would not - '
He said no more; for, impelled by some fiend at my elbow, I had
seized my whip by the small end, and - swift and sudden as a flash
of lightning - brought the other down upon his head. It was not
without a feeling of savage satisfaction that I beheld the instant,
deadly pallor that overspread his face, and the few red drops that
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: dearly bought at the Opera, what attention you would pay me, M. du
Bruel! I feel the most supreme contempt for men who boast that they
can love and grow careless and neglectful in little things as time
grows on. You are short and insignificant, you see, du Bruel; you love
to torment a woman; it is your only way of showing your strength. A
Napoleon is ready to be swayed by the woman he loves; he loses nothing
by it; but as for such as you, you believe that you are nothing
apparently, you do not wish to be ruled.--Five-and-thirty, my dear
boy,' she continued, turning to me, 'that is the clue to the riddle.--
"No," does he say again?--You know quite well that I am thirty-seven.
I am very sorry, but just ask your friends to dine at the /Rocher de
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