| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: When the fair Imperia found herself alone, seated before the fire, and
without her little priest, she exclaimed, snapping angrily the gold
links of her chain, "By the double triple horn on the devil, if the
little one has made me have this row with the Cardinal, and exposed me
to the danger of being poisoned tomorrow, unless I pay him over to my
heart's content, I will not die till I have seen him burned alive
before my eyes. Ah!" said she, weeping, this time real tears, "I lead
a most unhappy life, and the little pleasure I have costs me the life
of a dog, let alone my salvation."
As she finished this jeremiad, wailing like a calf that is being
slaughtered, she beheld the blushing face of the young priest, who had
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: choice, and she imposed them on my infancy, reading the works of
others as a poet would scarce dare to read his own; gloating on the
rhythm, dwelling with delight on assonances and alliterations. I
know very well my mother must have been all the while trying to
educate my taste upon more secular authors; but the vigour and the
continual opportunities of my nurse triumphed, and after a long
search, I can find in these earliest volumes of my autobiography no
mention of anything but nursery rhymes, the Bible, and Mr. M'Cheyne.
I suppose all children agree in looking back with delight on their
school Readers. We might not now find so much pathos in 'Bingen on
the Rhine,' 'A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,' or in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: 'Finished and framed, my boy!' answered Trevor; 'and, by the bye,
you have made a conquest. That old model you saw is quite devoted
to you. I had to tell him all about you - who you are, where you
live, what your income is, what prospects you have - '
'My dear Alan,' cried Hughie, 'I shall probably find him waiting
for me when I go home. But of course you are only joking. Poor
old wretch! I wish I could do something for him. I think it is
dreadful that any one should be so miserable. I have got heaps of
old clothes at home - do you think he would care for any of them?
Why, his rags were falling to bits.'
'But he looks splendid in them,' said Trevor. 'I wouldn't paint
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