| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: the young clergyman went on.
Felix still stood and smiled. The little room had grown darker,
and the crimson glow had faded; but Mr. Brand could see the brilliant
expression of his face. "I won't pretend not to know what you mean,"
said Felix at last. "But I have not really interfered with you.
Of what you had to lose--with another person--you have lost nothing.
And think what you have gained!"
"It seems to me I am the proper judge, on each side," Mr. Brand declared.
He got up, holding the brim of his hat against his mouth and staring at Felix
through the dusk.
"You have lost an illusion!" said Felix.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: happened or not happened, he would have come round of himself to
the light. The incident of an autumn day had put the match to the
train laid from of old by his misery. With the light before him he
knew that even of late his ache had only been smothered. It was
strangely drugged, but it throbbed; at the touch it began to bleed.
And the touch, in the event, was the face of a fellow-mortal. This
face, one grey afternoon when the leaves were thick in the alleys,
looked into Marcher's own, at the cemetery, with an expression like
the cut of a blade. He felt it, that is, so deep down that he
winced at the steady thrust. The person who so mutely assaulted
him was a figure he had noticed, on reaching his own goal, absorbed
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: nowadays. I have hidden myself in a chest, at the risk of a dagger
thrust, for nothing more than the promise of a kiss. To die for Her--
it seemed to me to be a whole life in itself. In 1760 I fell in love
with a lady of the Vendramin family; she was eighteen years old, and
married to a Sagredo, one of the richest senators, a man of thirty,
madly in love with his wife. My mistress and I were guiltless as
cherubs when the /sposo/ caught us together talking of love. He was
armed, I was not, but he missed me; I sprang upon him and killed him
with my two hands, wringing his neck as if he had been a chicken. I
wanted Bianca to fly with me; but she would not. That is the way with
women! So I went alone. I was condemned to death, and my property was
|
