| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: expression of the mouth; where candor claimed the depths profound and
varied of the eye, and disputed them with a spirit of irony that was
trained and educated,--from all these signs an observer would have
felt that this young girl, with the keen, alert ear that waked at
every sound, with a nostril open to catch the fragrance of the
celestial flower of the Ideal, was destined to be the battle-ground of
a struggle between the poesies of the dawn and the labors of the day;
between fancy and reality, the spirit and the life. Modeste was a pure
young girl, inquisitive after knowledge, understanding her destiny,
and filled with chastity,--the Virgin of Spain rather than the Madonna
of Raphael.
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: not belong to it. None of us Hagberds ever did
belong to it. Look at me; I didn't get drowned.
Moreover, he isn't a sailor at all; and if he is not a
sailor he's bound to come back. There's nothing
to prevent him coming back. . . ."
His eyes began to wander.
"To-morrow."
She never tried again, for fear the man should
go out of his mind on the spot. He depended on
her. She seemed the only sensible person in the
town; and he would congratulate himself frankly
To-morrow |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: expression to the only need for gratitude that ever filled my
heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this day.
"Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on,
after a pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed
by a will he had had made by a public scrivener, dating from the
year when we had gone to live in the Cour de Rohan.
"This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he
might have loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never
said a word to me about my want of religion. When he was dying he
entreated me to spare no expense that he might have every
possible benefit of clergy. I had a mass said for him every day.
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