| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: bedstead; "but I'd rather be a pedler all my life on the boulevard,
and live on fried potatoes, than sell one item of this apartment."
"Not one item," said Blondet; "sell all. Ambition is like death; it
takes all or nothing."
"No, a hundred times no! I would take anything from my new countess;
but rob Florine of her shell? no."
"Upset our money-box, break one's balance-pole, smash our refuge,--
yes, that would be serious," said Blondet with a tragic air.
"It seems to me from what I hear that you want to play politics
instead of comedies," said Florine, suddenly appearing.
"Yes, my dear, yes," said Raoul, affectionately taking her by the neck
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: She looked half-jestingly at her husband, feeling the necessity of
reviving the energies of the man who embodied her ambitions, and on
whom she could play as on an instrument.
"Why despair?" she went on, with a shrug that sufficiently expressed
her indifference as to the prisoner's end. "This suicide will delight
Lucien's two enemies, Madame d'Espard and her cousin, the Comtesse du
Chatelet. Madame d'Espard is on the best terms with the Keeper of the
Seals; through her you can get an audience of His Excellency and tell
him all the secrets of this business. Then, if the head of the law is
on your side, what have you to fear from the president of your Court
or the public prosecutor?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: thereupon I tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was
not really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity
was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him, saying
to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of
us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is,--
for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think
that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the
advantage of him. Then I went to another who had still higher pretensions
to wisdom, and my conclusion was exactly the same. Whereupon I made
another enemy of him, and of many others besides him.
Then I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity
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