| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: carelessly receiving, Kostanzhoglo thrust, uncounted, into the back
pocket of his overcoat.
"Hm!" thought Chichikov. "For all he cares, the notes might have been
a handkerchief."
When Kostanzhoglo appeared at closer quarters--that is to say, in the
doorway of the drawing-room--he struck Chichikov more than ever with
the swarthiness of his complexion, the dishevelment of his black,
slightly grizzled locks, the alertness of his eye, and the impression
of fiery southern origin which his whole personality diffused. For he
was not wholly a Russian, nor could he himself say precisely who his
forefathers had been. Yet, inasmuch as he accounted genealogical
Dead Souls |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: that they would make a thousand plans till daybreak and never once
hear Mme Lerat as she snored vigorously after the fatigues of a day
spent in picking country flowers.
This charming existence lasted nearly a week. Count Muffat used to
come every evening and go away again with disordered face and
burning hands. One evening he was not even received, as Steiner had
been obliged to run up to Paris. He was told that Madame was not
well. Nana grew daily more disgusted at the notion of deceiving
Georges. He was such an innocent lad, and he had such faith in her!
She would have looked on herself as the lowest of the low had she
played him false. Besides, it would have sickened her to do so!
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: reformation.
REFUGE, n. Anything assuring protection to one in peril. Moses and
Joshua provided six cities of refuge -- Bezer, Golan, Ramoth, Kadesh,
Schekem and Hebron -- to which one who had taken life inadvertently
could flee when hunted by relatives of the deceased. This admirable
expedient supplied him with wholesome exercise and enabled them to
enjoy the pleasures of the chase; whereby the soul of the dead man was
appropriately honored by observations akin to the funeral games of
early Greece.
REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; as an elderly maiden's hand
in marriage, to a rich and handsome suitor; a valuable franchise to a
The Devil's Dictionary |
