| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: "And his successor?"
"In exile--Oh! I see what you are coming to."
"My conclusion is certainly not difficult to guess. But have you fully
remarked the deduction to be drawn from that royal career?--for which
I myself feel the greatest respect. Louis XVIII. was not a citizen
king. He granted this Charter, but he never consented to it. Born
nearer to the throne than the prince whose regrettable tendencies I
mentioned just now, he might naturally share more deeply still the
ideas, the prejudices, and the infatuations of the court; in person he
was ridiculous (a serious princely defect in France); he bore the
brunt of a new and untried regime; he succeeded a government which had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: Lawless very well affected, combined to conquer his suspicious
jealousy; his countenance relaxed, and he at once extended his open
hand and squeezed that of the outlaw in a formidable grasp.
"Nay," he said, "I cannot mind you. But what o' that? I would
drink with any man, gossip, and so would my man Tom. Man Tom," he
added, addressing his follower, "here is my gossip, whose name I
cannot mind, but no doubt a very good seaman. Let's go drink with
him and his shore friend."
Lawless led the way, and they were soon seated in an alehouse,
which, as it was very new, and stood in an exposed and solitary
station, was less crowded than those nearer to the centre of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: withdrew from the happiness which Mademoiselle Gamard believed that
she seasoned to his liking,--for she regarded happiness as a thing to
be made, like her preserves. But the luckless abbe made the break in a
clumsy way, the natural way of his own naive character, and it was not
carried out without much nagging and sharp-shooting, which the Abbe
Birotteau endeavored to bear as if he did not feel them.
By the end of the first year of his sojourn under Mademoiselle
Gamard's roof the vicar had resumed his former habits; spending two
evenings a week with Madame de Listomere, three with Mademoiselle
Salomon, and the other two with Mademoiselle Merlin de la Blottiere.
These ladies belonged to the aristocratic circles of Tourainean
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