| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: to suggest to this charming woman that she should play the noble part
of Rebecca in Ivanhoe, and love and protect him. It was all, of
course, in the ethereal regions of sentiment. Forget-me-nots are not
more blue, lilies not more white than the images, thoughts, and
radiantly illumined brow of this accomplished artist, who was likely
to send his conversation to a publisher. He played his part of reptile
to this poor Eve so cleverly, he made the fatal bloom of the apple so
dazzling to her eyes, that Marie left the ball-room filled with that
species of remorse which resembles hope, flattered in all her
vanities, stirred to every corner of her heart, caught by her own
virtues, allured by her native pity for misfortune.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: read them sometimes - ten years ago. I dare say they were in
general rather stupider then; at any rate it always struck me they
missed my little point with a perfection exactly as admirable when
they patted me on the back as when they kicked me in the shins.
Whenever since I've happened to have a glimpse of them they were
still blazing away - still missing it, I mean, deliciously. YOU
miss it, my dear fellow, with inimitable assurance; the fact of
your being awfully clever and your article's being awfully nice
doesn't make a hair's breadth of difference. It's quite with you
rising young men," Vereker laughed, "that I feel most what a
failure I am!"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: we turned to go, a pattering footfall on the floor, just before us.
We went through the other attics (in all four), the footfall still
preceding us. Nothing to be seen,--nothing but the footfall heard.
I had the letters in my hand; just as I was descending the stairs I
distinctly felt my wrist seized, and a faint, soft effort made to
draw the letters from my clasp. I only held them the more tightly,
and the effort ceased.
We regained the bedchamber appropriated to myself, and I then
remarked that my dog had not followed us when we had left it. He
was thrusting himself close to the fire, and trembling. I was
impatient to examine the letters; and while I read them, my servant
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