| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: to occupy and entertain the others, it fell to Anne's lot to be placed
rather apart with Captain Benwick; and a very good impulse
of her nature obliged her to begin an acquaintance with him.
He was shy, and disposed to abstraction; but the engaging mildness of
her countenance, and gentleness of her manners, soon had their effect;
and Anne was well repaid the first trouble of exertion.
He was evidently a young man of considerable taste in reading,
though principally in poetry; and besides the persuasion of having
given him at least an evening's indulgence in the discussion of subjects,
which his usual companions had probably no concern in, she had the hope
of being of real use to him in some suggestions as to the duty and
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: marriage contract relative to the investment of her dowry. Graslin was
all the more ready to do so because this act of justice cost him
nothing, he having doubled the original sum.
At this time, when Graslin was negotiating the purchase, the
Navarreins domains comprised the forest of Montegnac which contained
about thirty thousand acres of unused land, the ruins of the castle,
the gardens, park, and about five thousand acres of uncultivated land
on the plain beyond Montegnac. Graslin immediately bought other lands
in order to make himself master of the first peak in the chain of the
Correzan mountains on which the vast forest of Montegnac ended. Since
the imposition of taxes the Duc de Navarreins had never received more
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: with all the enthusiasm of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had
visited the Electorate and the banks of the Rhine as artists,
philosophers, and observers. When a man's destiny is scientific he is,
at their age, a being who is truly many-sided. Even in making love or
in travelling, an assistant-surgeon should be gathering up the
rudiments of his fortune or his coming fame.
The two young had therefore given themselves wholly to that deep
admiration which must affect all educated men on seeing the banks of
the Rhine and the scenery of Suabia between Mayenne and Cologne,--a
strong, rich, vigorously varied nature, filled with feudal memories,
ever fresh and verdant, yet retaining at all points the imprints of
|
