| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: thing about the dying face was its incredible power. It was no
ordinary spirit that wrestled there with Death. The eyes glared
with strange fixity of gaze from the cavernous sockets hollowed
by disease. It seemed as if Bartolommeo sought to kill some enemy
sitting at the foot of his bed by the intent gaze of dying eyes.
That steady remorseless look was the more appalling because the
head that lay upon the pillow was passive and motionless as a
skull upon a doctor's table. The outlines of the body, revealed
by the coverlet, were no less rigid and stiff; he lay there as
one dead, save for those eyes. There was something automatic
about the moaning sounds that came from the mouth. Don Juan felt
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: as the ant-lion excavates its funnel in the sand and lies in wait at
the bottom for its victim. Suppose that no one strays, after all, into
that carefully constructed labyrinth? Suppose that the ant-lion dies
of hunger and thirst in her pit? Such things may be, but if any
heedless creature once enters in, it never comes out. All the wires
which could be pulled to induce action on the captain's part were
tried; appeals were made to the secret interested motives that always
come into play in such cases; they worked on Castanier's hopes and on
the weaknesses and vanity of human nature. Unluckily, he had praised
the daughter to her mother when he brought her back after a waltz, a
little chat followed, and then an invitation in the most natural way
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: started as if struck by lightning, and exclaimed,
"Good Heavens! William, is it possible that we
are, after all, doomed to hopeless bondage?" I
could say nothing, my heart was too full to speak,
for at first I did not know what to do. However
we knew it would never do to turn back to the
"City of Destruction," like Bunyan's Mistrust and
Timorous, because they saw lions in the narrow
way after ascending the hill Difficulty; but press
on, like noble Christian and Hopeful, to the great
city in which dwelt a few "shining ones." So, after
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
