| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: they shall continue to lead blameless lives or become actively
criminal. In the vast masses of men enrolled in Napoleon's armies
there are many who, like Castanier, possessed the purely physical
courage demanded on the battlefield, yet lacked the moral courage
which makes a man as great in crime as he could have been in virtue.
The letter of credit was drafted in such terms that immediately on his
arrival he might draw twenty-five thousand pounds on the firm of
Watschildine, the London correspondents of the house of Nucingen. The
London house had already been advised of the draft about to be made
upon them, he had written to them himself. He had instructed an agent
(chosen at random) to take his passage in a vessel which was to leave
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: stern, by the left hand of the doctor, sat Herrick, dressed in a
fresh rig of slops, his brown beard trimmed to a point, a pile of
paper novels on his lap, and nursing the while between his feet
a chronometer, for which they had exchanged that of the
Farallone, long since run down and the rate lost.
They passed the guard boat, exchanging hails with the
boat-swain's mate in charge, and drew near at last to the
forbidden ship. Not a cat stirred, there was no speech of man;
and the sea being exceeding high outside, and the reef close to
where the schooner lay, the clamour of the surf hung round her
like the sound of battle.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning
brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. But there was Jordan beside
me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten
dreams from age to age. As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face
fell lazily against my coat's shoulder and the formidable stroke of
thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand.
So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.
The young Greek, Michaelis, who ran the coffee joint beside the
ashheaps was the principal witness at the inquest. He had slept through
the heat until after five, when he strolled over to the garage, and
found George Wilson sick in his office--really sick, pale as his own
The Great Gatsby |
