| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: limits prescribed for human affection. This sublime privilege of
prolonging life in our hearts for a time by the life of the work
we leave behind us would be (if we could only be sure of gaining
it at last) a reward indeed for all the labor undertaken by those
who aspire to such an immortality.
Yet again I say--May God grant it!
DE BALZAC.
THE ALKAHEST
(THE HOUSE OF CLAES)
CHAPTER I
There is a house at Douai in the rue de Paris, whose aspect, interior
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: was not wasted in idleness by the assembled students.
It was past noon, therefore they ordered their landlord,
downstairs, to send up hot beefsteaks, chickens, and such things,
and these they ate, sitting comfortable at the several tables,
whilst they chatted, disputed and laughed. The door to
the surgeon's room stood open, meantime, but the cutting,
sewing, splicing, and bandaging going on in there in
plain view did not seem to disturb anyone's appetite.
I went in and saw the surgeon labor awhile, but could
not enjoy; it was much less trying to see the wounds
given and received than to see them mended; the stir
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: "You see yourself," he began again in a downcast manner. "She
could not have really . . . She mentioned you several times. Good
friend. Sensible man. So I wanted to tell you myself - let you
know the truth. A fellow like that! How could it be? She was
lonely. And perhaps for a while . . . Mere nothing. There could
never have been a question of love for my Freya - such a sensible
girl - "
"Man!" I cried, rising upon him wrathfully, "don't you see that she
died of it?"
He got up too. "No! no!" he stammered, as if angry. "The doctors!
Pneumonia. Low state. The inflammation of the . . . They told me.
'Twixt Land & Sea |
