| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: shop-window to look at a picture representing a handsome woman, who
had thrown off her shoe, thereby baring her whole foot in a very
pretty way; whilst behind her the head of a man with whiskers and a
handsome moustache peeped through the doorway of another room. Akakiy
Akakievitch shook his head and laughed, and then went on his way. Why
did he laugh? Either because he had met with a thing utterly unknown,
but for which every one cherishes, nevertheless, some sort of feeling;
or else he thought, like many officials, as follows: "Well, those
French! What is to be said? If they do go in anything of that sort,
why--" But possibly he did not think at all.
Akakiy Akakievitch at length reached the house in which the sub-chief
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: which would come eventually to the attorney, made that young man one
of the most important personages of the department.
The sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, Monsieur des Lupeaulx, nephew of
the general-secretary of one of the most important ministries in
Paris, was the prospective husband of Mademoiselle Elise Gaubertin,
the mayor's youngest daughter, whose dowry, like that of her elder
sister, was two hundred thousand francs, not to speak of
"expectations." This functionary showed much sense, though not aware
of it, in falling in love with Mademoiselle Elise when he first
arrived at Ville-aux-Fayes, in 1819. If it had not been for his social
position, which made him "eligible," he would long ago have been
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: June evening in the boudoir of the ministry of foreign affairs, the
night before the battle of Marengo. Those who have the means of
judging, and who have known persons who were well-informed, are fully
aware that Bonaparte was handled like a child by Talleyrand and
Fouche, who were determined to alienate him irrevocably from the House
of Bourbon, whose agents were even then, at the last moment,
endeavoring to negotiate with the First Consul."
"Talleyrand was playing whist in the salon of Madame de Luynes," said
a personage who had been listening attentively to de Marsay's
narrative. "It was about three o'clock in the morning, when he pulled
out his watch, looked at it, stopped the game, and asked his three
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