| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: hopes are buried in Lucien's coffin."
"Indeed?" said Madame Camusot, with deep irony.
"Yes, my career is closed. I shall be no more than an examining judge
all my life. Before this fatal termination Monsieur de Granville was
annoyed at the turn the preliminaries had taken; his speech to our
President makes me quite certain that so long as Monsieur de Granville
is public prosecutor I shall get no promotion."
Promotion! The terrible thought, which in these days makes a judge a
mere functionary.
Formerly a magistrate was made at once what he was to remain. The
three or four presidents' caps satisfied the ambitions of lawyers in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: of traps; and there he stood, his hand on his knife, the sleep
all heavy in his rolling eyes, ready for any fight.
Messua laughed, and set the evening meal before him. There were
only a few coarse cakes baked over the smoky fire, some rice,
and a lump of sour preserved tamarinds--just enough to go on
with till he could get to his evening kill. The smell of the dew
in the marshes made him hungry and restless. He wanted to finish
his spring running, but the child insisted on sitting in his
arms, and Messua would have it that his long, blue-black hair
must he combed out. So she sang, as she combed, foolish little
baby-songs, now calling Mowgli her son, and now begging him to
The Second Jungle Book |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: could not believe my eyes. I gave an inarticulate cry. I gripped his arm.
I pointed. "Look!" I cried, finding my tongue. "There! Yes! And there!"
His eyes followed my pointing finger. "Eh?" he said.
How can I describe the thing I saw? It is so petty a thing to state, and
yet it seemed so wonderful, so pregnant with emotion. I have said that
amidst the stick-like litter were these rounded bodies, these little oval
bodies that might have passed as very small pebbles. And now first one and
then another had stirred, had rolled over and cracked, and down the crack
of each of them showed a minute line of yellowish green, thrusting outward
to meet the hot encouragement of the newly-risen sun. For a moment that
was all, and then there stirred, and burst a third!
The First Men In The Moon |
