| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: No town can stand.
And shall my bosom's chain,--
This plaster wall,Ä
To think one moment, deign,--
Shall ii not fall?
1811.
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SWISS SONG,
Up in th' mountain
I was a-sitting,
With the bird there
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: bedside. There were drops of perspiration on his forehead, he was pale
with emotion, and his eyes were dim with tears.
"I have thought it over, mother," he answered in a deep voice. "I will
take Marie to the school here in Tours. I will give ten thousand
francs to our old Annette, and ask her to take care of them, and to
look after Marie. Then, with the remaining two thousand francs, I will
go to Brest, and go to sea as an apprentice. While Marie is at school,
I will rise to be a lieutenant on board a man-of-war. There, after
all, die in peace, my mother; I shall come back again a rich man, and
our little one shall go to the Ecole polytechnique, and I will find a
career to suit his bent."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: both appearance and character, to his seniors as could possibly
be imagined or desired. He was not above twelve years old, fair,
blue-eyed, and kind in temper to every living thing. He did not,
of course, agree particularly well with his brothers, or, rather,
they did not agree with HIM. He was usually appointed to the
honorable office of turnspit, when there was anything to roast,
which was not often, for, to do the brothers justice, they were
hardly less sparing upon themselves than upon other people. At
other times he used to clean the shoes, floors, and sometimes the
plates, occasionally getting what was left on them, by way of
encouragement, and a wholesome quantity of dry blows by way of
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