| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: restless intrigues, like those of a harem between eunuchs and women
and imbecile sultans, or the petty troubles of nuns full of underhand
vexations, or college tyrannies, or diplomatic manoeuvrings fit to
terrify an ambassador, all put in motion to obtain a fee or an
increase in salary; it was like the hopping of fleas harnessed to
pasteboard cars, the spitefulness of slaves, often visited on the
minister himself. With all this were the really useful men, the
workers, victims of such parasites; men sincerely devoted to their
country, who stood vigorously out from the background of the other
incapables, yet who were often forced to succumb through unworthy
trickery.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: Newman answered. "But I have had to take you as I could get you."
Madame de Bellegarde, with a movement very eloquent of what he would
have called her "grit," her steel-cold pluck and her instinctive
appeal to her own personal resources, drew her hand out of her son's
arm and went and seated herself upon the bench. There she remained,
with her hands folded in her lap, looking straight at Newman.
The expression of her face was such that he fancied at first
that she was smiling; but he went and stood in front of her
and saw that her elegant features were distorted by agitation.
He saw, however, equally, that she was resisting her agitation with all
the rigor of her inflexible will, and there was nothing like either
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: was doubtless torturing himself, after the manner of the insane,
with needless thoughts of pain.
I came tiptoe into our own room, and found Mina asleep,
breathing so softly that I had to put my ear down to hear it.
She looks paler than usual. I hope the meeting tonight has
not upset her. I am truly thankful that she is to be left out
of our future work, and even of our deliberations. It is too
great a strain for a woman to bear. I did not think so at first,
but I know better now. Therefore I am glad that it is settled.
There may be things which would frighten her to hear,
and yet to conceal them from her might be worse than to tell
Dracula |
