| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: fifteen thousand foot. Therefore the rest of the commanders,
overpersuading Archelaus, and drawing up the army, covered the plain
with horses, chariots, bucklers, targets. The clamor and cries of so
many nations forming for battle rent the air, nor was the pomp and
ostentation of their costly array altogether idle and unserviceable
for terror; for the brightness of their armor, embellished
magnificently with gold and silver, and the rich colors of their
Median and Scythian coats, intermixed with brass and shining steel,
presented a flaming and terrible sight as they swayed about and moved
in their ranks, so much so that the Romans shrunk within their
trenches, and Sylla, unable by any arguments to remove their fear,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: Marner, worked at his vocation in a stone cottage that stood among
the nutty hedgerows near the village of Raveloe, and not far from
the edge of a deserted stone-pit. The questionable sound of Silas's
loom, so unlike the natural cheerful trotting of the
winnowing-machine, or the simpler rhythm of the flail, had a
half-fearful fascination for the Raveloe boys, who would often leave
off their nutting or birds'-nesting to peep in at the window of the
stone cottage, counterbalancing a certain awe at the mysterious
action of the loom, by a pleasant sense of scornful superiority,
drawn from the mockery of its alternating noises, along with the
bent, tread-mill attitude of the weaver. But sometimes it happened
Silas Marner |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: spoke their language. His painter was Pierre Grassou, and not Joseph
Bridau; his book was "Paul and Virginia." The greatest living poet for
him was Casimire de la Vigne; to his eyes the mission of art was,
above all things, utility. Parmentier, the discoverer of the potato,
was greater to him that thirty Raffaelles; the man in the blue cloak
seemed to him a sister of charity. These were Thuillier's expressions,
and Theodose remembered them all--on occasion.
"That young Felix Phellion," he now remarked, "is precisely the
academical man of our day; the product of knowledge which sends God to
the rear. Heavens, what are we coming to? Religion alone can save
France; nothing but the fear of hell will preserve us from domestic
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