| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: and again he stayed out all night, and to some extent led the life of
a Bohemian; he would unbend at a supper-party. He went out to all
appearance to a rehearsal at the Opera-Comique, and found himself in
some unaccountable way at Dieppe, or Baden, or Saint-Germain; he gave
dinners, led the Titanic thriftless life of artists, journalists, and
writers; levied his tribute on all the greenrooms of Paris; and, in
short, was one of us. Finot, Lousteau, du Tillet, Desroches, Bixiou,
Blondet, Couture, and des Lupeaulx tolerated him in spite of his
pedantic manner and ponderous official attitude. But once married,
Tullia made a slave of du Bruel. There was no help for it. He was in
love with Tullia, poor devil.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: Castruccio said to one who professed to be a philosopher: "You are
like the dogs who always run after those who will give them the best
to eat," and was answered: "We are rather like the doctors who go to
the houses of those who have the greatest need of them." Going by
water from Pisa to Leghorn, Castruccio was much disturbed by a
dangerous storm that sprang up, and was reproached for cowardice by
one of those with him, who said that he did not fear anything.
Castruccio answered that he did not wonder at that, since every man
valued his soul for what is was worth. Being asked by one what he
ought to do to gain estimation, he said: "When thou goest to a banquet
take care that thou dost not seat one piece of wood upon another." To
The Prince |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: to rotate in their several orbits had been entirely suspended:
in that case, indeed, the earth would rush onwards towards the sun,
and in sixty-four days and a half the catastrophe you dread
would inevitably happen."
"And what demonstration do you offer," asked Servadac eagerly,
"that it will not happen?"
"Simply this, captain: that since the earth entered her new orbit half
the sixty-four days has already elapsed, and yet it is only just recently
that she has crossed the orbit of Venus, hardly one-third of the distance
to be traversed to reach the sun."
The lieutenant paused to allow time for reflection, and added:
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