| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: his face grew serene and gentle again. But without some sketch of the
Presidente, it is impossible fully to understand the perturbation of
heart from which Pons suffered.
Mme. de Marville had been short and fair, plump and fresh; at forty-
six she was as short as ever, but she looked dried up. An arched
forehead and thin lips, that had been softly colored once, lent a
soured look to a face naturally disdainful, and now grown hard and
unpleasant with a long course of absolute domestic rule. Time had
deepened her fair hair to a harsh chestnut hue; the pride of office,
intensified by suppressed envy, looked out of eyes that had lost none
of their brightness nor their satirical expression. As a matter of
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: but did not make his way homewards. He hated
the very thought of the vulgar peasants' life. He
went back to Moscow in company of some drunken
soldiers, who had been watchmen in the orchard
together with him. On his arrival there he at
once resolved, under cover of night, to break into
the shop where he had been employed, and beaten,
and then turned out by the proprietor without be-
ing paid. He knew the place well, and knew
where the money was locked up. So he bade the
soldiers, who helped him, keep watch outside, and
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: Marcas; he abandoned this person, indeed, to the caprices of life.
What he lived by was the breath of ambition; he dreamed of revenge
while blaming himself for yielding to so shallow a feeling. The true
statesman ought, above all things, to be superior to vulgar passions;
like the man of science. It was in these days of dire necessity that
Marcas seemed to us so great--nay, so terrible; there was something
awful in the gaze which saw another world than that which strikes the
eye of ordinary men. To us he was a subject of contemplation and
astonishment; for the young--which of us has not known it?--the young
have a keen craving to admire; they love to attach themselves, and are
naturally inclined to submit to the men they feel to be superior, as
|
