| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: render the piping voice, the little mannerisms, little queue, little
sprinkling of powder, little movements of the head, prim little
manner, and tripping gait in the part of Coquerel in /La Famille
Improvisee/. This Croizeau used to hand over his halfpence with a
flourish and a 'There, fair lady!'
"Mme. Ida Bonamy the aunt was not long in finding out through a
servant that Croizeau, by popular report of the neighborhood of the
Rue de Buffault, where he lived, was a man of exceeding stinginess,
possessed of forty thousand francs per annum. A week after the
instalment of the charming librarian he was delivered of a pun:
" 'You lend me books (livres), but I give you plenty of francs in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: before the god himself appeared a sound of flutes was heard; the
cadence of the Bacchic air proclaimed his coming.
At this point the company broke forth in admiration of the ballet-
master. For no sooner did the sound of music strike upon the ear of
Ariadne than something in her action revealed to all the pleasure
which it caused her. She did not step forward to meet her lover, she
did not rise even from her seat; but the flutter of her unrest was
plain to see.[3]
[3] Lit. "the difficulty she had to keep so still was evident."
When Dionysus presently caught sight of her he loved, lightly he
danced towards her, and with show of tenderest passion gently reclined
The Symposium |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: variety, and the only sample; this is plain. But I caught a true
kangaroo and brought it in, thinking that this one, being lonesome,
would rather have that for company than have no kin at all, or any
animal it could feel a nearness to or get sympathy from in its
forlorn condition here among strangers who do not know its ways
or habits, or what to do to make it feel that it is among friends;
but it was a mistake--it went into such fits at the sight of the
kangaroo that I was convinced it had never seen one before. I
pity the poor noisy little animal, but there is nothing I can do
to make it happy. If I could tame it--but that is out of the
question; the more I try, the worse I seem to make it. It grieves
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