| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: forgive him, I assure you. He was actually on the point of leaving
Churchhill! I had scarcely concluded my last, when Wilson brought me word
of it. I found, therefore, that something must be done; for I did not
choose to leave my character at the mercy of a man whose passions are so
violent and so revengeful. It would have been trifling with my reputation
to allow of his departing with such an impression in my disfavour; in this
light, condescension was necessary. I sent Wilson to say that I desired to
speak with him before he went; he came immediately. The angry emotions
which had marked every feature when we last parted were partially subdued.
He seemed astonished at the summons, and looked as if half wishing and half
fearing to be softened by what I might say. If my countenance expressed
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: evolving motion. With us the social system has been turning more
and more rapidly with time. In the Far East its force, instead of
increasing, would seem to have decreased, enabling the nebula of its
original condition to keep together as a single mass, so that to-day
a whole nation, resembling a nebula indeed in homogeneity, is swayed
by a single patriarchal principle. Here, on the contrary, so rapid
has the motion become that even brethren find themselves scattered
to the four winds.
An Occidental father and an Oriental head of a family are no longer
really correlative terms. The latter more closely resembles a king
in his duties, responsibilities, and functions generally. Now, in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: then?"
The Comte de Soulanges looked as if he understood nothing of this
speech.
"And now I hope," the Colonel went on, "that you will tell me if you
know a charming little woman who is sitting under a huge
candelabrum----"
At these words the Count's face lighted up; he violently seized the
Colonel's hand: "My dear General," said he, in a perceptibly altered
voice, "if any man but you had asked me such a question, I would have
cracked his skull with this mass of gold. Leave me, I entreat you. I
feel more like blowing out my brains this evening, I assure you, than
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