| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: lady was very ill; she had, no doubt, given up all hope, for she died
without choosing to send for a doctor; indeed, many of our ladies
fancied she was not quite right in her head. Well, sir, my curiosity
was strangely excited by hearing that Madame de Merret had need of my
services. Nor was I the only person who took an interest in the
affair. That very night, though it was already late, all the town knew
that I was going to Merret.
" 'The waiting-woman replied but vaguely to the questions I asked her
on the way; nevertheless, she told me that her mistress had received
the Sacrament in the course of the day at the hands of the Cure of
Merret, and seemed unlikely to live through the night. It was about
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: were to be within her daily reach, and she could not
entirely subdue the hope of some traditional legends,
some awful memorials of an injured and ill-fated nun.
It was wonderful that her friends should seem
so little elated by the possession of such a home,
that the consciousness of it should be so meekly borne.
The power of early habit only could account for it.
A distinction to which they had been born gave no pride.
Their superiority of abode was no more to them than their
superiority of person.
Many were the inquiries she was eager to make
Northanger Abbey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: altogether unknown to them. They knew not what it was to bow before
an illegitimate and contested power--a power but little honoured,
frequently despised, but willingly endured because it may be
serviceable, or because it may hurt. To that degrading form of
servitude they were ever strangers. The king inspired them with
feelings . . . which have become incomprehensible to this generation
. . . They loved him with the affection due to a father; they
revered him with the respect due to God. In submitting to the most
arbitrary of his commands, they yielded less to compulsion than to
loyalty; and thus they frequently preserved great freedom of mind,
even in the most complete dependence. This liberty, irregular,
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