| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: with lace of dazzling whiteness worked in meshes like a fish-slice,
festoon the black velvet doublet of the old man with a heavy gold
chain, and you will have a faint idea of the exterior of this strange
individual, to whose appearance the dusky light of the landing lent
fantastic coloring. You might have thought that a canvas of Rembrandt
without its frame had walked silently up the stairway, bringing with
it the dark atmosphere which was the sign-manual of the great master.
The old man cast a look upon the youth which was full of sagacity;
then he rapped three times upon the door, and said, when it was opened
by a man in feeble health, apparently about forty years of age, "Good-
morning, maitre."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: at once that man could never have fashioned it. It was a god chiselled
by the hands of the gods, and it looked down haughty and majestic
upon the seeker. Rumour had said it was strange and not to be
mistaken, and Carter saw that it was indeed so; for those long
narrow eyes and long-lobed ears, and that thin nose and pointed
chin, all spoke of a race that is not of men but of gods.
He
clung overawed in that lofty and perilous eyrie, even though it
was this which he had expected and come to find; for there is
in a god's face more of marvel than prediction can tell, and when
that face is vaster than a great temple and seen looking downward
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: face of his partner.
"What!" he exclaimed, with a smile, "can young ladies read the
thoughts of love behind the silent brow?"
"Your brother is in love, then?" she asked, betrayed into a movement
of curiosity.
"Yes; my sister Clara, to whom he is as devoted as a mother, wrote to
me that he had fallen in love this summer with a very pretty girl; but
I have had no further news of the affair. Would you believe that the
poor boy used to get up at five in the morning, and went off to settle
his business that he might be back by four o'clock in the country
where the lady was? In fact, he ruined a very nice thoroughbred that I
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