| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: fellows, had been the very lung of his hope; for he had
held that these qualities would lead her to adhere to a
straight course for consistency's sake, and accept him,
though her fancy might not flood him with the iridescent
hues of uncritical love. But the argument now came
back as sorry gleams from a broken mirror. The dis-
covery was no less a scourge than a surprise.
He came on looking upon the ground, and did not
see Bathsheba till they were less than a stone's throw
apart. He looked up at the sound of her pit-pat, and
his changed appearance sufficiently denoted to her the
Far From the Madding Crowd |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: of one of my clients was in danger of losing her reputation, together
with her husband's love and esteem, if she could not get fifty
thousand francs together in the course of the morning. There had been
gaming debts, and carriage-builders' accounts, money lost to Heaven
knows whom. My magician of a boon companion had impressed it upon me
that she was rich enough to make good these reverses by a few years of
economy. But only now did I begin to guess the reasons of his urgency.
I confess, to my shame, that I had not the shadow of a doubt but that
it was a matter of importance that Daddy Gobseck should make it up
with this dandy. I was dressing when the young gentleman appeared.
" 'M. le Comte,' said I, after the usual greetings, 'I fail to see why
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: over their champagne and their pheasants,--are handed down at their
birth from the brain to the commercial travellers who are employed to
spread them discreetly, "urbi et orbi," through Paris and the
provinces, seasoned with the fried pork of advertisement and
prospectus, by means of which they catch in their rat-trap the
departmental rodent commonly called subscriber, sometimes stockholder,
occasionally corresponding member or patron, but invariably fool.
"I am a fool!" many a poor country proprietor has said when, caught by
the prospect of being the first to launch a new idea, he finds that he
has, in point of fact, launched his thousand or twelve hundred francs
into a gulf.
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