| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: Many lovers fancy that such chance accidents of the sky are
premonitions. Francine was surprised at the strange silence which fell
upon the travellers. Mademoiselle de Verneuil had recovered her cold
manner, and sat with her eyes lowered, her head slightly inclined, and
her hands hidden under a sort of mantle in which she had wrapped
herself. If she raised her eyes it was only to look at the passing
scenery. Certain of being admired, she rejected admiration; but her
apparent indifference was evidently more coquettish than natural.
Purity, which gives such harmony to the diverse expressions by which a
simple soul reveals itself, could lend no charm to a being whose every
instinct predestined her to the storms of passion. Yielding himself up
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: which is his mountain-pen. Hearing of enormous landed proprietors of ten
thousand acres and more, our philosopher deems this to be a trifle, because
he has been accustomed to think of the whole earth; and when they sing the
praises of family, and say that some one is a gentleman because he can show
seven generations of wealthy ancestors, he thinks that their sentiments
only betray a dull and narrow vision in those who utter them, and who are
not educated enough to look at the whole, nor to consider that every man
has had thousands and ten thousands of progenitors, and among them have
been rich and poor, kings and slaves, Hellenes and barbarians, innumerable.
And when people pride themselves on having a pedigree of twenty-five
ancestors, which goes back to Heracles, the son of Amphitryon, he cannot
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Of the acorn that grew the tree from which I was
made."
So they left the wooden animal and went in to see
Glinda, who welcomed the little girls in her most cordial
manner.
"I knew you were on your way," said the good Sorceress
when they were seated in her library, "for I learned from
my Record Book that you intended to meet Trot and Button-
Bright on their arrival here."
"Is the strange little girl named Trot?" asked Dorothy.
"Yes; and her companion, the old sailor, is named Cap'n
The Scarecrow of Oz |
