| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: Rhetore may continue to calumniate my friend at his ease; in the first
place, because he is in Italy; and secondly, because Marie-Gaston
would always feel extreme repugnance to come to certain extremities
with the brother of his wife. It is precisely that powerlessness,
relatively speaking, to defend himself, which constitutes my right--I
will say more--my duty to interfere. It was not without a special
permission of Providence that I was enabled to catch a few of the
malicious words that were said of him, and, as Monsieur de Rhetore
declines to modify any of them, we must, if it please you, continue
this matter to the end."
The duel then became inevitable; the terms were arranged in the course
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: king--that thou didst evil to drive me away, was it not? because I set
thee on thy throne and I alone could hold thee there?"
He made no answer, and I went on:--
"I, Mopo, son of Makedama, set thee on thy throne, O Dingaan, who wast
a king, and I, Mopo, have pulled thee down from thy throne. But my
message did not end there. It said that, ill as thou hadst done to
drive me away, yet worse shouldst thou do to look upon my face again,
for that day should be thy day of doom."
Still he made no answer. Then Umslopogaas spoke:--
"I am that Slaughterer, O Dingaan, no more a king, whom thou didst
send Slayers many and fierce to eat up at the kraal of the People of
Nada the Lily |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: gathering resolution; took in a big breath and began.
When he entered the kitchen presently, with both
eyes shut and groping for the towel with his hands,
an honorable testimony of suds and water was dripping
from his face. But when he emerged from the towel,
he was not yet satisfactory, for the clean territory
stopped short at his chin and his jaws, like a mask;
below and beyond this line there was a dark expanse
of unirrigated soil that spread downward in front and
backward around his neck. Mary took him in hand,
and when she was done with him he was a man and a
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
