| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: impulse. It may have been that Delphine, who had allowed this
young man to gain such an ascendency over her, conscious that she
had been too demonstrative, was obeying a sentiment of dignity,
and either repented of her concessions, or it pleased her to
suspend them. It is so natural to a Parisienne, even when passion
has almost mastered her, to hesitate and pause before taking the
plunge; to probe the heart of him to whom she intrusts her
future. And once already Mme. de Nucingen's hopes had been
betrayed, and her loyalty to a selfish young lover had been
despised. She had good reason to be suspicious. Or it may have
been that something in Eugene's manner (for his rapid success was
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: "Why has he been sent here?"
The governor smiled. "He had committed six
murders, and yet he is a holy man. I go bail for
him."
Mitia Smokovnikov took Stepan, now a bald-
headed, lean, tanned man, with him on his journey.
On their way Stepan took care of Smokovnikov,
like his own child, and told him his story; told
him why he had been sent here, and what now
filled his life.
And, strange to say, Mitia Smokovnikov, who
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: and I indulge the hope that my two studies may lend him a
hint or perhaps spare him a delay in its composition.
Of the PEPYS I can say nothing; for it has been too recently
through my hands; and I still retain some of the heat of
composition. Yet it may serve as a text for the last remark
I have to offer. To Pepys I think I have been amply just; to
the others, to Burns, Thoreau, Whitman, Charles of Orleans,
even Villon, I have found myself in the retrospect ever too
grudging of praise, ever too disrespectful in manner. It is
not easy to see why I should have been most liberal to the
man of least pretensions. Perhaps some cowardice withheld me
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