| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: moments, or so much nature in her art, that in absence her memory is
almost as potent as her presence. All other women are as shadows
compared with her. Not until we have lost or known the dread of losing
a love so vast and glorious, do we prize it at its just worth. And if
a man who has once possessed this love shuts himself out from it by
his own act and deed, and sinks to some loveless marriage; if by some
incident, hidden in the obscurity of married life, the woman with whom
he hoped to know the same felicity makes it clear that it will never
be revived for him; if, with the sweetness of divine love still on his
lips, he has dealt a deadly wound to /her/, his wife in truth, whom he
forsook for a social chimera,--then he must either die or take refuge
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: the egg of his romance lay (so to speak) unhatched. The huge
packing-case was directed to lie at Waterloo till called for, and
addressed to one 'William Dent Pitman'; and the very next
article, a goodly barrel jammed into the corner of the van, bore
the superscription, 'M. Finsbury, 16 John Street, Bloomsbury.
Carriage paid.'
In this juxtaposition, the train of powder was prepared; and
there was now wanting only an idle hand to fire it off.
CHAPTER IV. The Magistrate in the Luggage Van
The city of Winchester is famed for a cathedral, a bishop--but he
was unfortunately killed some years ago while riding--a public
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: pale as I was, she must have realized that I had not returned
without purpose, and she must have asked herself what that
purpose was.
If I had seen Marguerite unhappy, if, in revenging myself upon
her, I could have come to her aid, I should perhaps have forgiven
her, and certainly I should have never dreamt of doing her an
injury. But I found her apparently happy, some one else had
restored to her the luxury which I could not give her; her
breaking with me seemed to assume a character of the basest
self-interest; I was lowered in my own esteem as well as in my
love. I resolved that she should pay for what I had suffered.
Camille |
