| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: Theodotus, to show his cleverness and the cogency of his
rhetoric, undertook to demonstrate, that neither the one nor
the other was safe in that juncture of affairs. For if they
entertained him, they would be sure to make Caesar their enemy,
and Pompey their master; or if they dismissed him, they might
render themselves hereafter obnoxious to Pompey, for that
inhospitable expulsion, and to Caesar, for the escape; so that
the most expedient course would be to send for him and take
away his life, for by that means they would ingratiate
themselves with the one, and have no reason to fear the other;
adding, it is related, with a smile, that "a dead man cannot
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: inclination to do that very extraordinary thing. He did not laugh,
but his lip quivered; at which the diminutive Spaniard, detaching
his black glittering eyes from Byrne's face, turned his back on him
brusquely with a gesture and a fling of the cloak which somehow
expressed contempt, bitterness, and discouragement all at once. He
turned away and stood still, his hat aslant, muffled up to the
ears. But he was not offended to the point of refusing the silver
DURO which Byrne offered him with a non-committal speech as if
nothing extraordinary had passed between them.
"I must make haste on board now," said Byrne, then.
"VAYA USTED CON DIOS," muttered the gnome. And this interview
Within the Tides |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: garret room, to which he gave an artist's touch. He added a rug; the
bed, simple in character but exquisite in taste, had something
monastic about it; the walls, hung with a cheap glazed cotton selected
with taste, of a color which harmonized with the furniture and was
newly covered, gave the room an air of elegance and nicety. In the
hallway he added a double door, with a "portiere" to the inner one.
The window was shaded by a blind which gave soft tones to the light.
If the poor mother's life was reduced to the plainest circumstances
that the life of any woman could have in Paris, Agathe was at least
better off than all others in a like case, thanks to her son.
To save his mother from the cruel cares of such reduced housekeeping,
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