| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: the keyhole. That is much worse. And what aggravates the mischief
is that the journalists who are most to blame are not the amusing
journalists who write for what are called Society papers. The harm
is done by the serious, thoughtful, earnest journalists, who
solemnly, as they are doing at present, will drag before the eyes
of the public some incident in the private life of a great
statesman, of a man who is a leader of political thought as he is a
creator of political force, and invite the public to discuss the
incident, to exercise authority in the matter, to give their views,
and not merely to give their views, but to carry them into action,
to dictate to the man upon all other points, to dictate to his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: the moon upon the bay, and could feel the soft, gusty beating of
the hot south wind. A subtle current of desire passed through her
body, weakening her hold upon the brushes and making her eyes burn.
There were days when she was very happy without knowing why.
She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being
seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the
luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to
wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered
many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found
it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested.
There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know
Awakening & Selected Short Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: instilled into Flore such deep repugnance to the bitter cup of
knowledge, that the doctor stopped her education at that point. His
intentions with regard to the child, whom he cleansed and clothed, and
taught, and formed with a care which was all the more remarkable
because he was thought to be utterly devoid of tenderness, were
interpreted in a variety of ways by the cackling society of the town,
whose gossip often gave rise to fatal blunders, like those relating to
the birth of Agathe and that of Max. It is not easy for the community
of a country town to disentangle the truth from the mass of conjecture
and contradictory reports to which a single fact gives rise. The
provinces insist--as in former days the politicians of the little
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