| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: into society to keep up his connections, but he occasionally spent an
evening at the Hotel de Grandlieu. It was a very lucky thing for him
that his talents had been brought into the light by his devotion to
Mme. de Grandlieu, for his practice otherwise might have gone to
pieces. Derville had not an attorney's soul. Since Ernest de Restaud
had appeared at the Hotel de Grandlieu, and he had noticed that
Camille felt attracted to the young man, Derville had been as
assiduous in his visits as any dandy of the Chausee-d'Antin newly
admitted to the noble Faubourg. At a ball only a few days before, when
he happened to stand near Camille, and said, indicating the Count:
"It is a pity that yonder youngster has not two or three million
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: accusations you heard long before the others, and much oftener.
Well, then, I must make my defence, and endeavour to clear away in a short
time, a slander which has lasted a long time. May I succeed, if to succeed
be for my good and yours, or likely to avail me in my cause! The task is
not an easy one; I quite understand the nature of it. And so leaving the
event with God, in obedience to the law I will now make my defence.
I will begin at the beginning, and ask what is the accusation which has
given rise to the slander of me, and in fact has encouraged Meletus to
proof this charge against me. Well, what do the slanderers say? They
shall be my prosecutors, and I will sum up their words in an affidavit:
'Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: "Why, she means to go back to Snowfield again, and work i' the
mill, and starve herself, as she used to do, like a creatur as has
got no friends."
Mr. Poyser did not readily find words to express his unpleasant
astonishment; he only looked from his wife to Dinah, who had now
seated herself beside Totty, as a bulwark against brotherly
playfulness, and was busying herself with the children's tea. If
he had been given to making general reflections, it would have
occurred to him that there was certainly a change come over Dinah,
for she never used to change colour; but, as it was, he merely
observed that her face was flushed at that moment. Mr. Poyser
Adam Bede |
