| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: rendered in writing, except at interminable length.
Just as the bayonets of the four men were finally lost to sight,
Captain Merle returned, having executed the commandant's orders with
rapidity. Hulot, with two or three sharp commands, put his troop in
line of battle and ordered it to return to the summit of La Pelerine
where his little advanced-guard were stationed; walking last himself
and looking backward to note any changes that might occur in a scene
which Nature had made so lovely, and man so terrible. As he reached
the spot where he had left the Chouan, Marche-a-Terre, who had seen
with apparent indifference the various movements of the commander, but
who was now watching with extraordinary intelligence the two soldiers
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: were then at the mercy of their ministers, men who were infinitely
stronger than they.
"Nearly all these statesmen are dead, and no secrecy is due to them.
They belong to history; and the history of that night and its
consequences has been terrible. I tell it to you now because I alone
know it; because Louis XVIII. never revealed the truth to that poor
Madame de Cinq-Cygne; and because the present government which I serve
is wholly indifferent as to whether the truth be known to the world or
not.
"All four of these personages sat down in the boudoir. The lame man
undoubtedly closed the door before a word was said; it is even thought
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our
language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which
is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a
child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country, you
must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be introduced. The
tale, which was of great length, began as follows:--
I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they
distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made for
themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for
his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and
settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe. Looking
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