| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: have us. Nev' min', we will sing anyhow." And drawing his bow
across the strings, he sang in his thin, quavering voice, "Salut
demeure, chaste et pure."
It is strange what a peculiar power of fascination former haunts
have for the human mind. The criminal, after he has fled from
justice, steals back and skulks about the scene of his crime; the
employee thrown from work hangs about the place of his former
industry; the schoolboy, truant or expelled, peeps in at the
school-gate and taunts the good boys within. M'sieu Fortier was
no exception. Night after night of the performances he climbed
the stairs of the opera and sat, an attentive listener to the
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: husbands cannot afford to pay for their frantic extravagance,
they will sell themselves. Or if they cannot do that, they will
tear out their mothers' hearts to find something to pay for their
splendor. They will turn the world upside down. Just a Parisienne
through and through!"
Father Goriot's face, which had shone at the student's words like
the sun on a bright day, clouded over all at once at this cruel
speech of Vautrin's.
"Well," said Mme. Vauquer, "but where is your adventure? Did you
speak to her? Did you ask her if she wanted to study law?"
"She did not see me," said Eugene. "But only think of meeting one
Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from United States Declaration of Independence: it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing
the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
United States Declaration of Independence |
