| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: "Pray, Sir Philip, what route do you take when you reach the
Continent?"
"I go from Leith to Helvoet by a packet with advices."
"That I comprehend perfectly," said Lady Bothwell dryly; "but you
do not mean to remain long at Helvoet, I presume, and I should
like to know what is your next object."
"You ask me, my dear lady," answered Sir Philip, "a question
which I have not dared to ask myself. The answer depends on the
fate of war. I shall, of course, go to headquarters, wherever
they may happen to be for the time; deliver my letters of
introduction; learn as much of the noble art of war as may
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: have a small house, with a garden in which to plant
clematis, nasturtiums, and honeysuckle. But what ails you,
father? Are you not well?"
"'Tis nothing, nothing; it will soon pass away" -- and as he
said so the old man's strength failed him, and he fell
backwards.
"Come, come," said the young man, "a glass of wine, father,
will revive you. Where do you keep your wine?"
"No, no; thanks. You need not look for it; I do not want
it," said the old man.
"Yes, yes, father, tell me where it is," and he opened two
The Count of Monte Cristo |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: cleverness simply consists in making more or less piquant remarks, in
loving Rastignac with tedious fidelity, and obeying him blindly. She
is a regular Italian."
"Money apart," Andoche Finot put in sourly.
"Oh, come, come," said Bixiou coaxingly; "after what we have just been
saying, will you venture to blame poor Rastignac for living at the
expense of the firm of Nucingen, for being installed in furnished
rooms precisely as La Torpille was once installed by our friend des
Lupeaulx? You would sink to the vulgarity of the Rue Saint-Denis!
First of all, 'in the abstract,' as Royer-Collard says, the question
may abide the Kritik of Pure Reason; as for the impure reason----"
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