| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: heiress. For that matter, there was not a soul in the house who
took any trouble to investigate the various chronicles of
misfortunes, real or imaginary, related by the rest. Each one
regarded the others with indifference, tempered by suspicion; it
was a natural result of their relative positions. Practical
assistance not one could give, this they all knew, and they had
long since exhausted their stock of condolence over previous
discussions of their grievances. They were in something the same
position as an elderly couple who have nothing left to say to
each other. The routine of existence kept them in contact, but
they were parts of a mechanism which wanted oil. There was not
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: If you expect me to run all over London looking for you every time
you happen to have a tiff with your auntie and cousins you are
mistaken. I can't afford it."
Tiff--was the sort of definition to take one's breath away, having
regard to the fact that both the word convict and the word pauper
had been used a moment before Flora de Barral ran away from the
quarrel about the lace trimmings. Yes, these very words! So at
least the girl had told Mrs. Fyne the evening before. The word tiff
in connection with her tale had a peculiar savour, a paralysing
effect. Nobody made a sound. The relative of de Barral proceeded
uninterrupted to a display of magnanimity. "Auntie told me to tell
Chance |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: to his comrades looking towards Ascalaphus, Aphareus, Deipyrus,
Meriones, and Antilochus, all of them brave soldiers--"Hither my
friends," he cried, "and leave me not single-handed--I go in
great fear by fleet Aeneas, who is coming against me, and is a
redoubtable dispenser of death battle. Moreover he is in the
flower of youth when a man's strength is greatest; if I was of
the same age as he is and in my present mind, either he or I
should soon bear away the prize of victory."
On this, all of them as one man stood near him, shield on
shoulder. Aeneas on the other side called to his comrades,
looking towards Deiphobus, Paris, and Agenor, who were leaders of
The Iliad |
