| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: wife, and said coldly, 'Madame, there is some one in your cupboard!'
She looked at her husband calmly, and replied quite simply, 'No,
monsieur.'
"This 'No' wrung Monsieur de Merret's heart; he did not believe it;
and yet his wife had never appeared purer or more saintly than she
seemed to be at this moment. He rose to go and open the closet door.
Madame de Merret took his hand, stopped him, looked at him sadly, and
said in a voice of strange emotion, 'Remember, if you should find no
one there, everything must be at an end between you and me.'
"The extraordinary dignity of his wife's attitude filled him with deep
esteem for her, and inspired him with one of those resolves which need
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: which summon it. No doubt, as Professor Tyndall observes, if we
knew exhaustively the physical state of the brain, "the
corresponding thought or feeling might be inferred; or, given the
thought or feeling, the corresponding state of the brain might be
inferred. But how inferred? It would be at bottom not a case of
logical inference at all, but of empirical association. You may
reply that many of the inferences of science are of this
character; the inference, for example, that an electric current
of a given direction will deflect a magnetic needle in a definite
way; but the cases differ in this, that the passage from the
current to the needle, if not demonstrable, is thinkable, and
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: poor Lady Eleanore. Some sceptics, it is true, might demand
documentary evidence, or even require him to produce the
embroidered mantle, forgetting that--Heaven be praised--it was
consumed to ashes. But now the old loyalist, whose blood was
warmed by the good cheer, began to talk, in his turn, about the
traditions of the Province House, and hinted that he, if it were
agreeable, might add a few reminiscences to our legendary stock.
Mr. Tiffany, having no cause to dread a rival, immediately
besought him to favor us with a specimen; my own entreaties, of
course, were urged to the same effect; and our venerable guest,
well pleased to find willing auditors, awaited only the return of
Twice Told Tales |
