| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: In January, 1826, on the day when Havre had unanimously chosen Charles
Mignon as its deputy, three letters, arriving from New York, Paris,
and London, fell with the destruction of a hammer upon the crystal
palace of his prosperity. In an instant ruin like a vulture swooped
down upon their happiness, just as the cold fell in 1812 upon the
grand army in Russia. One night sufficed Charles Mignon to decide upon
his course, and he spent it in settling his accounts with Dumay. All
he owned, not excepting his furniture, would just suffice to pay his
creditors.
"Havre shall never see me doing nothing," said the colonel to the
lieutenant. "Dumay, I take your sixty thousand francs at six per
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: sends forth at night or when its heart is troubled. The Otomies
worshipped this mountain as a god, offering human sacrifice to it,
which was not wonderful, for once the lava pouring from its bowels
cut a path through the City of Pines. Also they think it holy and
haunted, so that none dare set foot upon its loftier snows.
Nevertheless I was destined to climb them--I and one other.
Now in the lap of this ring of mountains and watched over by the
mighty Xaca, clad in its robe of snow, its cap of smoke, and its
crown of fire, lies, or rather lay the City of Pines, for now it is
a ruin, or so I left it. As to the city itself, it was not so
large as some others that I have seen in Anahuac, having only a
Montezuma's Daughter |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: ships before the wind, which for centuries past, by night and by day,
have passed between the islands of Sumatra and Java, freighted with
the costliest cargoes of the east. But while they freely waive a
ceremonial like this, they do by no means renounce their claim to
more solid tribute.
Time out of mind the piratical proas of the Malays, lurking among the
low shaded coves and islets of Sumatra, have sallied out upon the
vessels sailing through the straits, fiercely demanding tribute at
the point of their spears. Though by the repeated bloody
chastisements they have received at the hands of European cruisers,
the audacity of these corsairs has of late been somewhat repressed;
Moby Dick |
