| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: for money, so I---- Come, come, your prosecution is a piece of
revengeful spite. Forgery is defined by the law as an attempt to
obtain any advantage which rightfully belongs to another. There is no
forgery here, according to the letter of the Roman law, nor according
to the spirit of modern jurisprudence (always from the point of a
civil action, for we are not here concerned with the falsification of
public or authentic documents). Between private individuals the
essence of a forgery is the intent to defraud; where is it in this
case? In what times are we living, gentlemen? Here is the President
going away to balk a preliminary examination which ought to be over by
this time! Until to-day I did not know M. le President, but he shall
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: "Perhaps!" interrupted Lingard. "But you needn't feel hopeless. I
am not at liberty to give up my life for your own. Mrs. Travers
knows why. That, too, is engaged."
"Always on your honour?"
"I don't know. A promise is a promise."
"Nobody can be held to the impossible," remarked d'Alcacer.
"Impossible! What is impossible? I don't know it. I am not a man
to talk of the impossible or dodge behind it. I did not bring you
here."
D'Alcacer lowered his head for a moment. "I have finished," he
said, gravely. "That much I had to say. I hope you don't think I
The Rescue |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: who asserted the part of Amelia to be in every respect
the property of Miss Crawford, if she would accept it.
"It falls as naturally, as necessarily to her," said he,
"as Agatha does to one or other of my sisters. It can be no
sacrifice on their side, for it is highly comic."
A short silence followed. Each sister looked anxious;
for each felt the best claim to Agatha, and was hoping
to have it pressed on her by the rest. Henry Crawford,
who meanwhile had taken up the play, and with seeming
carelessness was turning over the first act, soon settled
the business.
Mansfield Park |
