| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: I have no confidence. And then I don't like being deposited,
like a parcel, or being watched, like a curious animal. I am too fond
of my liberty."
"That is the second time you have contradicted yourself," said Bernard.
"You said just now that you were not an independent being."
Angela turned toward him quickly, smiling and frowning at once.
"You do watch one, certainly! I see it has already begun."
Mrs. Vivian laid her hand upon her daughter's with a little murmur
of tender deprecation, and the girl bent over and kissed her.
"Mamma will tell you it 's the effect of agitation,"
she said--"that I am nervous, and don't know what I say.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: mere dexterity from art.
Dinah, whose mind was soon freed from rust, and whose intellect was by
no means narrow, had ere long taken literary measure of her idol. She
saw Lousteau working up to the last minute under the most
discreditable compulsion, and scamping his work, as painters say of a
picture from which sound technique is absent; but she would excuse him
by saying, "He is a poet!" so anxious was she to justify him in her
own eyes. When she thus guessed the secret of many a writer's
existence, she also guessed that Lousteau's pen could never be trusted
to as a resource.
Then her love for him led her to take a step she would never had
 The Muse of the Department |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: those words for our guidance.
On regaining my rooms, we devoted a whole hour to considering
what "ANDAMAN--SECOND" could possibly mean.
"Hang it all!" cried Smith, "it might mean anything--
the result of a race, for instance."
He burst into one of his rare laughs, and began to stuff broadcut mixture
into his briar. I could see that he had no intention of turning in.
"I can think of no one--no one of note--in London at present
upon whom it is likely that Fu-Manchu would make an attempt,"
he said, "except ourselves."
We began methodically to go through the long list of names
 The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |