| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: all companionship by means of the extreme and grotesque politeness
which they bestowed upon him. A pretty youth of twenty-two, tall and
slender, with the manners of an Englishman, a dandy in dress, curled
and perfumed, gloved and booted in the latest fashion, and twirling an
eyeglass, Benjamin de la Billardiere thought himself a charming fellow
and possessed all the vices of the world with none of its graces. He
was now looking forward impatiently to the death of his father, that
he might succeed to the title of baron. His cards were printed "le
Chevalier de la Billardiere" and on the wall of his office hung, in a
frame, his coat of arms (sable, two swords in saltire, on a chief
azure three mullets argent; with the motto; "Toujours fidele").
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: hundreds and thousands like him. I admit, a certain dexterity, a
certain lucidity, but there is not a country town in France where
there is not a Leblanc or so to be found about two o'clock in its
principal cafe. It's just that he isn't complicated or
Super-Mannish, or any of those things that has made all he has
done possible. But in happier times, don't you think, Wilhelm, he
would have remained just what his father was, a successful
epicier, very clean, very accurate, very honest. And on holidays
he would have gone out with Madame Leblanc and her knitting in a
punt with a jar of something gentle and have sat under a large
reasonable green-lined umbrella and fished very neatly and
The Last War: A World Set Free |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: soon as I have finished this piece of work I have to do."
"But if you should get--if anything should happen to you?"
"Nothing is going to happen to me. There is a special providence
looks after lovers, y'u know."
"Be careful, Ned, of yourself. For my sake, dear."
"I'll dry my socks every time I get my feet wet for fear of
taking cold," he laughed.
"But you will, won't you?"
"I'll be very careful, Helen," he promised more gravely.
Even then she could hardly let him go, clinging to him with a
reluctance to separate that was a new experience to her
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