| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: of the country, bringing with them all the fixed ideas bred of the
solitary country life; all the ignorance of a primitive nature, all
the brute appetites that become so many fixed ideas. Mme. Cibot's
masculine beauty, her vivacity, her market-woman's wit, had all been
remarked by the marine store-dealer. He thought at first of taking La
Cibot from her husband, bigamy among the lower classes in Paris being
much more common than is generally supposed; but greed was like a
slip-knot drawn more and more tightly about his heart, till reason at
length was stifled. When Remonencq computed that the commission paid
by himself and Elie Magus amounted to about forty thousand francs, he
determined to have La Cibot for his legitimate spouse, and his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: "No-- He is certainly a most impertinent man," reflected the marquise.
I request all women to imagine for themselves the reflections of which
this was the first.
Madame de Listomere ended hers by a formal decision to forbid her
porter to admit Monsieur de Rastignac, and to show him, herself,
something more than disdain when she met him in society; for his
insolence far surpassed that of other men which the marquise had ended
by overlooking. At first she thought of keeping the letter; but on
second thoughts she burned it.
"Madame had just received such a fine love-letter; and she read it,"
said Caroline to the housemaid.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: a Jew whose life he had formerly saved, had sufficed him, thanks to
his good memory and the perfect knowledge the Jew possessed of the
manners and habits of Maitre Cornelius. But the young man who, in the
first flush of his enterprise, had feared nothing was beginning to
perceive the difficulties it presented. The solemn gravity of the
terrible Fleming reacted upon him. He felt himself under lock and key,
and remembered how the grand provost Tristan and his rope were at the
orders of Maitre Cornelius.
"Have you supped?" asked the silversmith, in a tone which signified,
"You are not to sup."
The old maid trembled in spite of her brother's tone; she looked at
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