| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: This brings us by a natural transition to a very noble book -
the MEDITATIONS of Marcus Aurelius. The dispassionate
gravity, the noble forgetfulness of self, the tenderness of
others, that are there expressed and were practised on so
great a scale in the life of its writer, make this book a
book quite by itself. No one can read it and not be moved.
Yet it scarcely or rarely appeals to the feelings - those
very mobile, those not very trusty parts of man. Its address
lies further back: its lesson comes more deeply home; when
you have read, you carry away with you a memory of the man
himself; it is as though you had touched a loyal hand, looked
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: was meant for her. The Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, be it said, was one of
the greatest ladies in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, by reason of her
fortune and her ancient name; and though it may seem improbable that a
Paris attorney should speak so familiarly to her, or be so much at
home in her house, the fact is nevertheless easily explained.
When Mme. de Grandlieu returned to France with the Royal family, she
came to Paris, and at first lived entirely on the pension allowed her
out of the Civil List by Louis XVIII.--an intolerable position. The
Hotel de Grandlieu had been sold by the Republic. It came to
Derville's knowledge that there were flaws in the title, and he
thought that it ought to return to the Vicomtesse. He instituted
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: voudrez et je vous le donnerai. Oui, dansez pour moi, Salome, et je
vous donnerai tout ce que vous me demanderez, fut-ce la moitie de
mon royaume.
SALOME [se levant] Vous me donnerez tout ce que je demanderai,
tetrarque?
HERODIAS. Ne dansez pas, ma fille.
HERODE. Tout, fut-ce la moitie de mon royaume.
SALOME. Vous le jurez, tetrarque?
HERODE. Je le jure, Salome.
HERODIAS. Ma fille, ne dansez pas.
SALOME. Sur quoi jurez-vous, tetrarque?
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