| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: Ninny. The individuals of this species have an answer for everything.
They will tell lies sooner than say nothing.
Two old ladies, wives of former magistrates: The First (wears a cap
with bows, her face is wrinkled, her nose sharp, voice hard, carries a
prayer-book in her hand): "What was that Madame Firmiani's maiden
name?"--The Second (small face red as a crab-apple, gentle voice):
"She was a Cadignan, my dear, niece of the old Prince de Cadignan,
consequently cousin to the present Duc de Maufrigneuse."
Madame Firmiani is a Cadignan. She might have neither virtue, nor
wealth, nor youth, but she would still be a Cadignan; it is like a
prejudice, always alive and working.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: insufficient; but lest, says Buchanan with honest pride, "they
should get the reputation of having vainly tormented a man not
altogether unknown," they sent him for some months to a monastery,
to be instructed by the monks. "The men," he says, "were neither
inhuman nor bad, but utterly ignorant of religion;" and Buchanan
solaced himself during the intervals of their instructions, by
beginning his Latin translation of the Psalms.
At last he got free, and begged leave to return to France; but in
vain. And so, wearied out, he got on board a Candian ship at
Lisbon, and escaped to England. But England, he says, during the
anarchy of Edward VI.'s reign, was not a land which suited him; and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: were anxious to make their naturalization complete, and it soon
became so.
The "strange Friend" was now known in Londongrove by the familiar
name of "Henry." He was a constant attendant at meeting, not only
on First-days, but also on Fourth-days, and whenever he spoke his
words were listened to with the reverence due to one who was truly
led towards the Light. This respect kept at bay the curiosity that
might still have lingered in some minds concerning his antecedent
life. It was known that he answered Simon Pennock, who had
ventured to approach him with a direct question, in these words:
"Thee knows, Friend Simon, that sometimes a seal is put upon our
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