| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: "You are a silly, inquisitive little girl," said her mother, driven by
these aggravating circumstances quite outside of her usual habits of
indulgence. "Go to your room." Then she added to Jacques Bricheteau,
who lingered after the arrival of the letter,--
"Permit me, monsieur."
"It is for me, madame, to ask permission to remain until you have read
that letter. If /by chance/ Monsieur de Sallenauve gives you any
particulars about his journey, you will, perhaps, allow me to profit
by them."
"Monsieur de Sallenauve," said the countess, after reading the letter,
"requests me to inform my husband that he has gone to Hanwell, county
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: and gentleness itself; the slight fluctuations of her temper should be
attributed, he thought, to sufferings caused by a pulmonary affection,
of which she said little, resigning herself to bear them in a truly
Christian spirit." He ended by assuring the vicar that "if he stayed a
few years longer in Mademoiselle Gamard's house he would learn to
understand her better and acknowledge the real value of her excellent
nature."
Birotteau left the room confounded. In the direful necessity of
consulting no one, he now judged Mademoiselle Gamard as he would
himself, and the poor man fancied that if he left her house for a few
days he might extinguish, for want of fuel, the dislike the old maid
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: Prodicus agreed to this also.
And when you pray to the Gods that you may do well and receive good, you
mean by your prayer nothing else than that you desire to become good and
wise:--if, at least, things are good to the good and wise and evil to the
evil. But in that case, if virtue is acquired by instruction, it would
appear that you only pray to be taught what you do not know.
Hereupon I said to Prodicus that it was no misfortune to him if he had been
proved to be in error in supposing that the Gods immediately granted to us
whatever we asked:--if, I added, whenever you go up to the Acropolis you
earnestly entreat the Gods to grant you good things, although you know not
whether they can yield your request, it is as though you went to the doors
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