| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: clever merchant; you know very well that we should look ahead and
foresee everything; you can't be surprised that I should attend to my
business properly."
"Monsieur Claparon is right," said Joseph Lebas.
"I am right," said Claparon,--"right commercially. But this is an
affair of landed property. Now, what must I have? Money, to pay the
sellers. We won't speak now of the two hundred and forty thousand
francs,--which I am sure Monsieur Birotteau will be able to raise
soon," said Claparon, looking at Lebas. "I have come now to ask for a
trifle, merely twenty-five thousand francs," he added, turning to
Birotteau.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: Tonsardial occupations. Going about among the well-to-do houses, he
talked with masters and servants and picked up ideas which made him
the man of the world of the family, the shrewd head. We shall
presently see that in making love to Rigou's servant-girl, Jean-Louis
deserved his reputation for shrewdness.
"Well, what have you to say, prophet?" said the innkeeper to his son.
"I say that you are playing into the hands of the rich folk," replied
Jean-Louis. "Frighten the Aigues people to maintain your rights if you
choose; but if you drive them out of the place and make them sell the
estate, you are doing just what the bourgeois of the valley want, and
it's against your own interest. If you help the bourgeois to divide
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: to honorable members, he said, with a certain solemnity,--
"The honorable gentlemen came to discuss affairs of public interest
with his Excellency."
The office-seekers, being compelled to accept this fib, departed.
After which the bell rang again. The usher then assumed his most
gracious expression of face. By natural affinity, the lucky ones had
gathered in a group at one end of the room. Though they had never seen
one another before, most of them being the offspring of the late
national lying-in, they seemed to recognize a certain representative
air which is very difficult to define, though it can never be
mistaken. The usher, not venturing to choose among so many eminent
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