| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: treasures that dated from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as
so many devoted commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had
become possessed of the Rougets' furniture, sold at Issoudun early in
1824. She purchased some very good things at Nivernais and the Haute-
Loire. At the New Year and on her birthday her friends never failed to
give her some curiosities. These fancies found favor in the eyes of
Monsieur de la Baudraye; they gave him an appearance of sacrificing a
few crowns to his wife's taste. In point of fact, his land mania
allowed him to think of nothing but the estate of Anzy.
These "antiquities" at that time cost much less than modern furniture.
By the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: south--white, broad, lonely; they are all cut in the moor, and the
heather grows deep and wild to their very verge. Yet a chance
traveller might pass by; and I wish no eye to see me now: strangers
would wonder what I am doing, lingering here at the sign-post,
evidently objectless and lost. I might be questioned: I could give
no answer but what would sound incredible and excite suspicion. Not
a tie holds me to human society at this moment--not a charm or hope
calls me where my fellow-creatures are--none that saw me would have
a kind thought or a good wish for me. I have no relative but the
universal mother, Nature: I will seek her breast and ask repose.
I struck straight into the heath; I held on to a hollow I saw deeply
Jane Eyre |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: the little pieces together again, and make a battle
front. If none of the little pieces were wise enough
to save themselves from the flurry of death at such
75
a time, why, then, where would be the army? It
was all plain that he had proceeded according to
very correct and commendable rules. His ac-
tions had been sagacious things. They had been
full of strategy. They were the work of a mas-
ter's legs.
Thoughts of his comrades came to him. The
The Red Badge of Courage |
