| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: species of birthright. Attracted to the theatre of war before the date
at which they were required to begin their functions, they had
travelled by diligence to Strasburg. Though maternal prudence had only
allowed them a slender sum of money they thought themselves rich in
possessing a few louis, an actual treasure in those days when
assignats were reaching their lowest depreciation and gold was worth
far more than silver. The two young surgeons, about twenty years of
age at the most, yielded themselves up to the poesy of their situation
with all the enthusiasm of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had
visited the Electorate and the banks of the Rhine as artists,
philosophers, and observers. When a man's destiny is scientific he is,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: only a woman. You are the perfect woman whom he seeks."
"Love should grant all things!" she exclaimed, ready to sacrifice
love's scruples to reward the lover who thus seemed to sacrifice his
art to her. "And yet," she added, "it would be my ruin. Ah, to suffer
for thy good! Yes, it is glorious! But thou wilt forget me. How came
this cruel thought into thy mind?"
"It came there, and yet I love thee," he said, with a sort of
contrition. "Am I, then, a wretch?"
"Let us consult Pere Hardouin."
"No, no! it must be a secret between us."
"Well, I will go; but thou must not be present," she said. "Stay at
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: dispositis praesidiis Germanos transire prohibebant. Illi omnia experti,
cum neque vi contendere propter inopiam navium neque clam transire propter
custodias Menapiorum possent, reverti se in suas sedes regiones
simulaverunt et tridui viam progressi rursus reverterunt atque omni hoc
itinere una nocte equitatu confecto inscios inopinantes Menapios
oppresserunt, qui de Germanorum discessu per exploratores certiores facti
sine metu trans Rhenum in suos vicos remigraverant. His interfectis
navibus eorum occupatis, prius quam ea pars Menapiorum quae citra Rhenum
erat certior fieret, flumen transierunt atque omnibus eorum aedificiis
occupatis reliquam partem hiemis se eorum copiis aluerunt.
His de rebus Caesar certior factus et infirmitatem Gallorum veritus,
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