| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL
26 July.--I am anxious,and it soothes me to express myself here.
It is like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time.
And there is also something about the shorthand symbols that makes it
different from writing. I am unhappy about Lucy and about Jonathan.
I had not heard from Jonathan for some time, and was very concerned,
but yesterday dear Mr. Hawkins, who is always so kind, sent me a letter
from him. I had written asking him if he had heard, and he said the enclosed
had just been received. It is only a line dated from Castle Dracula,
and says that he is just starting for home. That is not like Jonathan.
I do not understand it, and it makes me uneasy.
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: those men of iron who have knocked about everywhere with our armies.
His life, like that of all French soldiers, has been made up of
bullets, sabre strokes, and victories; he has had a very rough time of
it, and has only worn the woolen epaulettes. He has a fanatical
affection for Napoleon, who conferred the Cross upon him on the field
of Valontina. He is of a jovial turn of mind, and like a genuine
Dauphinois, has always looked after his own interests, has his
pension, and the honors of the Legion. Goguelat is his name. He was an
infantry man, who exchanged into the Guard in 1812. He is Gondrin's
better half, so to speak, for the two have taken up house together.
They both lodge with a peddler's widow, and make over their money to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: road lay for a while over the plateau, and then descended through a
precipitous village into the valley of the Chassezac. This stream
ran among green meadows, well hidden from the world by its steep
banks; the broom was in flower, and here and there was a hamlet
sending up its smoke.
At last the path crossed the Chassezac upon a bridge, and,
forsaking this deep hollow, set itself to cross the mountain of La
Goulet. It wound up through Lestampes by upland fields and woods
of beech and birch, and with every corner brought me into an
acquaintance with some new interest. Even in the gully of the
Chassezac my ear had been struck by a noise like that of a great
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