| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: hoopoe and the red-legged falcon. At any other time I should have
begun chasing dragon-flies or throwing stones at a crow which was
sitting on a low mound under an aspen-tree, with his blunt beak
turned away; but at that moment I was in no mood for mischief. My
heart was throbbing, and I felt a cold sinking at my stomach; I
was preparing myself to confront a gentleman with epaulettes,
with a naked sword, and with terrible eyes!
But imagine my disappointment! A dapper little foppish gentleman
in white silk trousers, with a white cap on his head, was walking
beside my mother in the garden. With his hands behind him and his
head thrown back, every now and then running on ahead of mother,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: rose by a head above the marquise, and the marquise was inwardly
conscious of that superiority. In this, perhaps, lay the secret of
their intimacy. The weaker of the two crouched low in her false
attachment, watching for the hour, long awaited by feeble beings, of
springing at the throat of the stronger and leaving the mark of a
joyful bite. Diane saw clear; but the world was the dupe of the wile
caresses of the two friends.
The instant that the princess perceived a direct question on the lips
of her friend, she said:--
"Ah! dearest, I owe you a most complete, immense, infinite, celestial
happiness."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: enjoy in peace ill-gotten gains acquired against the laws of the
society in which we live,--for well-constituted societies are modeled
on the system God has ordained for the universe. In this respect
societies have a divine origin. Man does not originate ideas, he
invents no form; he answers to the eternal relations that surround him
on all sides. Therefore, see what happens! Criminals going to the
scaffold, and having it in their power to carry their secret with
them, are compelled by the force of some mysterious power to make
confessions before their heads are taken off. Therefore, Monsieur
Minoret, if your mind is at ease, I go my way satisfied."
Minoret was so stupefied that he allowed the abbe to find his own way
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