| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: and held him tightly to her heart.
" 'Ernest, your father said something to you just now.'
" 'Yes, mamma.'
" 'What did he say?'
" 'I cannot repeat it, mamma.'
" 'Oh, my dear child!' cried the Countess, kissing him in rapture.
'You have kept your secret; how glad that makes me! Never tell a lie;
never fail to keep your word--those are two principles which should
never be forgotten.'
" 'Oh! mamma, how beautiful you are! YOU have never told a lie, I am
quite sure.'
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: now getting the samovar ready for her husband, turned
cheerfully to Nikita, and infected by his hurry began to move
as quickly as he did, got down his miserable worn-out cloth
coat from the stove where it was drying, and began hurriedly
shaking it out and smoothing it down.
'There now, you'll have a chance of a holiday with your good
man,' said Nikita, who from kindhearted politeness always said
something to anyone he was alone with.
Then, drawing his worn narrow girdle round him, he drew in his
breath, pulling in his lean stomach still more, and girdled
himself as tightly as he could over his sheepskin.
Master and Man |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: angles, and tinting with a mixture of light and shade the hollows and
reliefs of the carvings. The caprices of this white light gave a
sinister expression to both edifices; it seemed as if Nature herself
encouraged the superstitions that hung about the miser's dwelling. The
young man called to mind the many traditions which made Cornelius a
personage both curious and formidable. Though quite decided through
the violence of his love to enter that house, and stay there long
enough to accomplish his design, he hesitated to take the final step,
all the while aware that he should certainly take it. But where is the
man who, in a crisis of his life, does not willingly listen to
presentiments as he hangs above the precipice? A lover worthy of being
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