| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: in the library, on the side of the room next the salon), three
certificates of Funds in the three-per-cents, made out to bearer,
each amounting to twelve thousand francs a year--
"What depths of wickedness!" screamed the post master. "Ah! God would
not permit me to be so defrauded."
Take these at once, and also some uninvested savings made to this
date, which you will find in the preceding volume. Remember, my
darling child, that you must obey a wish that has made the
happiness of my whole life; a wish that will force me to ask the
intervention of God should you disobey me. But, to guard against
all scruples in your dear conscience--for I well know how ready it
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: all across Africa, one half looking West on to the Atlantic, and
the other East on to the Indian Ocean.
{2} The original use of the footstool was probably less to rest
the feet than to keep them (especially when bare) from a floor
which was often wet and dirty.
{3} The [Greek] or seat, is occasionally called "high," as being
higher than the [Greek] or low footstool. It was probably no
higher than an ordinary chair is now, and seems to have had no
back.
{4} Temesa was on the West Coast of the toe of Italy, in what is
now the gulf of Sta Eufemia. It was famous in remote times for
 The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: man's whole periphery, accelerated the functions of the mind.
It set thoughts whirling, as it whirled the trees of the
forest; it stirred them up in flights, as it stirred up the
dust in chambers. As brief as sparks, the fancies glittered
and succeeded each other in the mind of Marie-Madeleine; and
the grave man with the smile, and the bright clothes under
the plain mantle, haunted her with incongruous explanations.
She considered him, the unknown, the speaker of an unknown
tongue, the hero (as she placed him) of an unknown romance,
the dweller upon unknown memories. She recalled him sitting
there alone, so immersed, so stupefied; yet she was sure he
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