| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: Happily for Cornelius a rumor was spread about Tours that his sister
was the actual robber, and that she had been secretly put to death by
Tristan. Otherwise, if the true history had been known, the whole town
would have risen as one man to destroy the Malemaison before the king
could have taken measures to protect it.
But, although these historical conjectures have some foundation so far
as the inaction of Louis XI. is concerned, it is not so as regards
Cornelius Hoogworst. There was no inaction there. The silversmith
spent the first days which succeeded that fatal night in ceaseless
occupation. Like carnivorous animals confined in cages, he went and
came, smelling for gold in every corner of his house; he studied the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: or somethin'; and I'd be king if I had to turn from the bottom of the
deck."
Baldy emptied his glass to the ratification of his Warwick pose.
"Baldy," said Webb, solemnly, "me and you punched cows in the same
outfit for years. We been runnin' on the same range, and ridin' the
same trails since we was boys. I wouldn't talk about my family affairs
to nobody but you. You was line-rider on the Nopalito Ranch when I
married Santa McAllister. I was foreman then; but what am I now? I
don't amount to a knot in a stake rope."
"When old McAllister was the cattle king of West Texas," continued
Baldy with Satanic sweetness, "you was some tallow. You had as much to
Heart of the West |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: like a mountain, a bird's nest, a garden, and there were little
antelopes, and her eyes were opening and shutting, and Mrs Ramsay went
on speaking still more monotonously, and more rhythmically and more
nonsensically, how she must shut her eyes and go to sleep and dream of
mountains and valleys and stars falling and parrots and antelopes and
gardens, and everything lovely, she said, raising her head very slowly
and speaking more and more mechanically, until she sat upright and saw
that Cam was asleep.
Now, she whispered, crossing over to his bed, James must go to sleep
too, for see, she said, the boar's skull was still there; they had not
touched it; quite unhurt. He made sure that the skull was still there
To the Lighthouse |
