| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: had never set eyes on him from the first to the
last day. I myself saw him but once, quite
accidentally on a wharf--an old, dark little man
blind in one eye, in a snowy robe and yellow
slippers. He was having his hand severely kissed
by a crowd of Malay pilgrims to whom he had
done some favour, in the way of food and money.
His alms-giving, I have heard, was most exten-
sive, covering almost the whole Archipelago. For
isn't it said that "The charitable man is the friend
of Allah"?
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: as to induce all who have the common good of man at heart, that is, all who
are virtuous in truth, and not merely in appearance, or according to opinion,
as well to communicate to me the experiments they had already made, as to
assist me in those that remain to be made.
But since that time other reasons have occurred to me, by which I have
been led to change my opinion, and to think that I ought indeed to go on
committing to writing all the results which I deemed of any moment, as
soon as I should have tested their truth, and to bestow the same care upon
them as I would have done had it been my design to publish them. This
course commended itself to me, as well because I thus afforded myself more
ample inducement to examine them thoroughly, for doubtless that is always
Reason Discourse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: hurt for the first time, made her sound the depths of the unknown
abyss which separated her from the Claes of earlier days. From that
time Balthazar's condition grew rapidly worse. The man formerly so
wrapped up in his domestic happiness, who played for hours with his
children on the parlor carpet or round the garden paths, who seemed
able to exist only in the light of his Pepita's dark eyes, did not
even perceive her pregnancy, seldom shared the family life, and even
forgot his own.
The longer Madame Claes postponed inquiring into the cause of his
preoccupation the less she dared to do so. At the very idea, her blood
ran cold and her voice grew faint. At last the thought occurred to her
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