| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: intimate friend, Madame Descoings, who insisted on being considered
her aunt, sold her own establishment and came to live with Agathe,
turning the study of the late Bridau into her bedroom.
The two widows clubbed their revenues, and so were in possession of a
joint income of twelve thousand francs a year. This seems a very
simple and natural proceeding. But nothing in life is more deserving
of attention than the things that are called natural; we are on our
guard against the unnatural and extraordinary. For this reason, you
will find men of experience--lawyers, judges, doctors, and priests--
attaching immense importance to simple matters; and they are often
thought over-scrupulous. But the serpent amid flowers is one of the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: happily on a crust. Sholte, the fat Russian
boy, who lived for his stomach, was to be disap-
pointed in love, grow thin, and shoot himself
from despondency. Amedee was to have
twenty children, and nineteen of them were to
be girls. Amedee slapped Frank on the back
and asked him why he didn't see what the
fortune-teller would promise him. But Frank
shook off his friendly hand and grunted, "She
tell my fortune long ago; bad enough!" Then
he withdrew to a corner and sat glowering at
O Pioneers! |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: And rigidly repels the handler's touch.
These earlier signs they give that presage doom.
But, if the advancing plague 'gin fiercer grow,
Then are their eyes all fire, deep-drawn their breath,
At times groan-laboured: with long sobbing heave
Their lowest flanks; from either nostril streams
Black blood; a rough tongue clogs the obstructed jaws.
'Twas helpful through inverted horn to pour
Draughts of the wine-god down; sole way it seemed
To save the dying: soon this too proved their bane,
And, reinvigorate but with frenzy's fire,
Georgics |
