| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: before it descends to hide itself behind your snowy precipices and
illuminate another world, you will have heard my story and can decide.
On you it rests, whether I quit forever the neighbourhood of man and
lead a harmless life, or become the scourge of your fellow creatures
and the author of your own speedy ruin."
As he said this he led the way across the ice; I followed.
My heart was full, and I did not answer him, but as I proceeded,
I weighed the various arguments that he had used and determined at
least to listen to his tale. I was partly urged by curiosity,
and compassion confirmed my resolution. I had hitherto supposed him
to be the murderer of my brother, and I eagerly sought a confirmation
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: We have for many years entered into an agreement always to admire
each other's works; I never fail listening to HER Music, and she
is as constant in eating my pies. Such at least was the case
till Henry Hervey made his appearance in Sussex. Before the
arrival of his Aunt in our neighbourhood where she established
herself you know about a twelvemonth ago, his visits to her had
been at stated times, and of equal and settled Duration; but on
her removal to the Hall which is within a walk from our House,
they became both more frequent and longer. This as you may
suppose could not be pleasing to Mrs Diana who is a professed
enemy to everything which is not directed by Decorum and
Love and Friendship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: My head was swimming. For me his confidences reached the proportions
of tragedy; at the sight of that white head of his and beyond it the
black water in the trenches of the Bastille lying still as a canal in
Venice, I had no words to answer him. Facino Cane thought, no doubt,
that I judged him, as the rest had done, with a disdainful pity; his
gesture expressed the whole philosophy of despair.
Perhaps his story had taken him back to happy days and to Venice. He
caught up his clarionet and made plaintive music, playing a Venetian
boat-song with something of his lost skill, the skill of the young
patrician lover. It was a sort of /Super flumina Babylonis/. Tears
filled my eyes. Any belated persons walking along the Boulevard
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