| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: should gain for its discoverer one hundred thousand
guilders!
Haarlem, having placed on exhibition its favourite, having
advertised its love of flowers in general and of tulips in
particular, at a period when the souls of men were filled
with war and sedition, -- Haarlem, having enjoyed the
exquisite pleasure of admiring the very purest ideal of
tulips in full bloom, -- Haarlem, this tiny town, full of
trees and of sunshine, of light and shade, had determined
that the ceremony of bestowing the prize should be a fete
which should live for ever in the memory of men.
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: clothes."
"I have money. Will it be by banns or license?"
"Banns, I should think."
"And we live in two parishes."
"Do we? What then?"
"My lodgings are in St. Mary's, and this is not. So
they will have to be published in both."
"Is that the law?"
"Yes. O Frank -- you think me forward, I am
afraid! Don't, dear Frank -- will you -- for I love you so.
And you said lots of times you would marry me, and
Far From the Madding Crowd |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: her hands so substantial a figure that I could no longer see myself sitting
on a rock with seaweed in my hair, awaiting that phantom ship for which all
women love to suppose they hunger. Rather I saw myself pushing a
perambulator up the gangway, and counting up the missing buttons on my
husband's uniform jacket.
"Handfuls of babies, that is what you are really in need of," mused Frau
Fischer. "Then, as the father of a family he cannot leave you. Think of
his delight and excitement when he saw you!"
The plan seemed to me something of a risk. To appear suddenly with
handfuls of strange babies is not generally calculated to raise enthusiasm
in the heart of the average British husband. I decided to wreck my virgin
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