| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: twenty francs. The fact was that she needed the Countess'
services on the delicate mission of sounding Goriot; the countess
must sing her praises in his ears. Mme. de l'Ambermesnil lent
herself very good-naturedly to this manoeuvre, began her
operations, and succeeded in obtaining a private interview; but
the overtures that she made, with a view to securing him for
herself, were received with embarrassment, not to say a repulse.
She left him, revolted by his coarseness.
"My angel," said she to her dear friend, "you will make nothing
of that man yonder. He is absurdly suspicious, and he is a mean
curmudgeon, an idiot, a fool; you would never be happy with him."
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: further ahead and clear out of hearing -- it was floating
a little faster than what I was.
Well, I seemed to be in the open river again by and
by, but I couldn't hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.
I reckoned Jim had fetched up on a snag, maybe, and
it was all up with him. I was good and tired, so I laid
down in the canoe and said I wouldn't bother no
more. I didn't want to go to sleep, of course; but I
was so sleepy I couldn't help it; so I thought I would
take jest one little cat-nap.
But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: disposition of things hid it. I caught myself craning my neck and singing
the hymn simultaneously and with no difficulty, because all my childhood
was in that hymn; I couldn't tell when I hadn't known words and music by
heart. Who was she? I tried for a clear view when we sat down, and also,
let me confess, when we knelt down; I saw even less of her so; and my
hope at the end of the service was dashed by her slow but entire
disappearance amid the engulfing exits of the other ladies. I followed
where I imagined she had gone, out by a side door, into the beautiful
graveyard; but among the flowers and monuments she was not, nor was he;
and next I saw, through the iron gate, John Mayrant in the street,
walking with his intimate aunt and her more severe sister, and Miss La
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