| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: the cross, but I'm the better dressed of the two, and it is I whom
people are looking at."
After this remark, which may explain why orators and other great
statesmen no longer put the ribbon in their buttonholes when in Paris,
Leon showed Gazonal a sign, bearing, in golden letters, the
illustrious name of "Vital, successor to Finot, manufacturer of hats"
(no longer "hatter" as formerly), whose advertisements brought in more
money to the newspapers than those of any half-dozen vendors of pills
or sugarplums,--the author, moreover, of an essay on hats.
"My dear fellow," said Bixiou to Gazonal, pointing to the splendors of
the show-window, "Vital has forty thousand francs a year from invested
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: But she was beginning to feel the strain of the attitude; the
reaction was more rapid, and she lapsed to a deeper self-disgust.
As was always the case with her, this moral repulsion found a
physical outlet in a quickened distaste for her surroundings.
She revolted from the complacent ugliness of Mrs. Peniston's
black walnut, from the slippery gloss of the vestibule tiles,
and the mingled odour of sapolio and furniture-polish that
met her at the door.
The stairs were still carpetless, and on the way up to her room
she was arrested on the landing by an encroaching tide of
soapsuds. Gathering up her skirts, she drew aside with an
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: pockets of Bertie and Billy; therefore were their heads empty of money
and full of less cramping thoughts. Oscar had fallen upon the reverse
of this fate. Calculation was his second nature. He had given his
education to himself; he had for its sake toiled, traded, outwitted, and
saved. He had sent himself to college, where most of the hours not
given to education and more education, went to toiling and more toiling,
that he might pay his meagre way through the college world. He had a
cheaper room and ate cheaper meals than was necessary. He tutored, and
he wrote college specials for several newspapers. His chief relaxation
was the praise of the ladies in Newbury Street. These told him of the
future which awaited him, and when they gazed upon his features were put
|
