| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: ballroom.
" 'Who?'
" 'That young lady.'
" 'Oh, Isaure d'Aldrigger? Why, yes. The mother is a widow; Nucingen
was once a clerk in her husband's bank at Strasbourg. Do you want to
see them again? Just turn off a compliment for Mme. de Restaud; she is
giving a ball the day after to-morrow; the Baroness d'Aldrigger and
her two daughters will be there. You will have an invitation.'
"For three days Godefroid beheld Isaure in the camera obscura of his
brain--HIS Isaure with her white camellias and the little ways she had
with her head--saw her as you see the bright thing on which you have
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: At length, an hour before sundown, we came to the open lands, and
there, on the crest of a rise beyond the river, we saw the kraal of
the People of the Axe. It was a great kraal and well built, and their
cattle were spread about the plains like to herds of game for number.
We went to the river and passed it by the ford, then sat down and
waited, till presently I saw the man whom I had sent forward returning
towards us. He came and saluted me, and I asked him for news.
"This is my news, Mopo," he said: "I have seen him who is named
Bulalio, and he is a great man--long and lean, with a fierce face, and
carrying a mighty axe, such an axe as he bore last night who hunted
with the wolves. When I had been led before the chief I saluted him
Nada the Lily |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: "Speedy" was composed solely of English prisoners, escaped from Norfolk
Island.
Here it may be well to explain what this island was. In 29ø 2' south
latitude, and 165ø 42' east longitude, to the east of Australia, is found a
little island, six miles in circumference, overlooked by Mount Pitt, which
rises to a height of 1,100 feet above the level of the sea. This is Norfolk
Island, once the seat of an establishment in which were lodged the most
intractable convicts from the English penitentiaries. They numbered 500,
under an iron discipline, threatened with terrible punishments, and were
guarded by 150 soldiers, and 150 employed under the orders of the governor.
It would be difficult to imagine a collection of greater ruffians.
The Mysterious Island |
