| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: diminishing by just so much the dividends of the true creditors, and
laying up for the honest man a store for the future; always, however,
providing a sufficient majority of votes and debts to secure the
passage of his certificate. The "gay and illegitimate creditors" are
like false electors admitted into the electoral college. What chance
has the "serious and legitimate creditor" against the "gay and
illegitimate creditor?" Shall he get rid of him by attacking him? How
can he do it? To drive out the intruder the legitimate creditor must
sacrifice his time, his own business, and pay an attorney to help him;
while the said attorney, making little out of it, prefers to manage
the bankruptcy in another capacity, and therefore works for the
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: "And you know," I continued, "what an anxious Newport parent does on
finding her girl on the brink of being a failure."
"I can imagine," he answered, "that she scolds her like the dickens."
"Oh, nothing so ineffectual! She makes her keep up with the others, you
know. Makes her do things she'd rather not do."
"High-balls, you mean?"
"Anything, my friend; anything to keep up."
He had a comic suggestion. "Driven to drink by her mother! Well, it's, at
any rate, a new cause for old effects." He paused. It seemed strangely to
bring to him some sort of relief. "That would explain a great deal," he
said.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: "La Palferine was dressing as he told us this. I took up the letter
which he was about to put to this use, read it, and kept it, as he did
not ask to have it back. Here it is. I looked for it, and found it as
I promised.
"/Monday (Midnight)./
" 'Well, my dear, are you satisfied with me? I did not even ask
for your hand, yet you might easily have given it to me, and I
longed so much to hold it to my heart, to my lips. No, I did not
ask, I am so afraid of displeasing you. Do you know one thing?
Though I am cruelly sure that anything I do is a matter of perfect
indifference to you, I am none the less extremely timid in my
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