| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: "Don't laugh at her, uncle; her position has obliged her to be very
careful. Her husband went to Greece in 1820 and died there three years
later. It has been impossible, up to the present time, to get legal
proofs of his death, or obtain the will which he made leaving his
whole property to his wife. These papers were either lost or stolen,
or have gone astray during the troubles in Greece,--a country where
registers are not kept as they are in France, and where we have no
consul. Uncertain whether she might not be forced to give up her
fortune, she has lived with the utmost prudence. As for me, I wish to
acquire property which shall be MINE, so as to provide for my wife in
case she is forced to lose hers."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: Mr. Morris' brave eyes, and I told him out straight. . .
"Yes, there is some one I love, though he has not told me
yet that he even loves me." I was right to speak to him
so frankly, for quite a light came into his face, and he put
out both his hands and took mine, I think I put them into his,
and said in a hearty way. . .
"That's my brave girl. It's better worth being late for
a chance of winning you than being in time for any other
girl in the world. Don't cry, my dear. If it's for me,
I'm a hard nut to crack, and I take it standing up.
If that other fellow doesn't know his happiness, well,
Dracula |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: Queen Mab, and "Keats - John Keats, sir." And I have often
wondered how he came by these acquirements; just as I often
wondered how he fell to be a beggar. He had served through the
Mutiny - of which (like so many people) he could tell practically
nothing beyond the names of places, and that it was "difficult
work, sir," and very hot, or that so-and-so was "a very fine
commander, sir." He was far too smart a man to have remained a
private; in the nature of things, he must have won his stripes.
And yet here he was without a pension. When I touched on this
problem, he would content himself with diffidently offering me
advice. "A man should be very careful when he is young, sir. If
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