| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: already half executed, he hesitated to carry out his designs. For him,
as for many men of mixed character in whom weakness and strength are
equally blended, the least trifling consideration determines whether
they shall continue to lead blameless lives or become actively
criminal. In the vast masses of men enrolled in Napoleon's armies
there are many who, like Castanier, possessed the purely physical
courage demanded on the battlefield, yet lacked the moral courage
which makes a man as great in crime as he could have been in virtue.
The letter of credit was drafted in such terms that immediately on his
arrival he might draw twenty-five thousand pounds on the firm of
Watschildine, the London correspondents of the house of Nucingen. The
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: The queen, determin'd to the fatal deed,
The spoils and sword he left, in order spread,
And the man's image on the nuptial bed.
And now (the sacred altars plac'd around)
The priestess enters, with her hair unbound,
And thrice invokes the pow'rs below the ground.
Night, Erebus, and Chaos she proclaims,
And threefold Hecate, with her hundred names,
And three Dianas: next, she sprinkles round
With feign'd Avernian drops the hallow'd ground;
Culls hoary simples, found by Phoebe's light,
Aeneid |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: neighbouring planet. And he was met at the place of his descent by
a great philosopher, who was to show him everything.
First of all they came through a wood, and the stranger looked upon
the trees. "Whom have we here?" said he.
"These are only vegetables," said the philosopher. "They are
alive, but not at all interesting."
"I don't know about that," said the stranger. "They seem to have
very good manners. Do they never speak?"
"They lack the gift," said the philosopher.
"Yet I think I hear them sing," said the other.
"That is only the wind among the leaves," said the philosopher. "I
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