| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: direct heirship alone has the right to attack the recognition of
natural children."
"Your balloon is collapsing fast," said the minister.
"So that the woman," continued Vinet, "has no object in proceeding,
for she can't inherit; it belongs to the government to pursue the case
of supposition of person; she can do no more than denounce the fact."
"From which you conclude?" said Rastignac, with that curtness of
speech which to a prolix speaker is a warning to be concise.
"From which I conclude, judicially speaking, that the Romilly peasant-
woman, so far as she is concerned, will have her trouble for her
pains; but, speaking politically, the thing takes quite another
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: From gems to drink, on Tyrian rugs to lie;
This hoards his wealth and broods o'er buried gold;
One at the rostra stares in blank amaze;
One gaping sits transported by the cheers,
The answering cheers of plebs and senate rolled
Along the benches: bathed in brothers' blood
Men revel, and, all delights of hearth and home
For exile changing, a new country seek
Beneath an alien sun. The husbandman
With hooked ploughshare turns the soil; from hence
Springs his year's labour; hence, too, he sustains
Georgics |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: about to be shown to his room, when from the inner lobby of the
front entrance, whither she had gone to learn the cause of the
delay, sailed forth the form of Elfride. Her start of amazement
at the sight of the visitor coming forth from under the stairs
proved that she had not been expecting this surprising flank
movement, which had been originated entirely by the ingenuity of
William Worm.
She appeared in the prettiest of all feminine guises, that is to
say, in demi-toilette, with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling
down about her shoulders. An expression of uneasiness pervaded
her countenance; and altogether she scarcely appeared woman enough
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
