| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: There was something great, something too of the despot about this old
Homer bearing within him an /Odyssey/ doomed to oblivion. The
greatness was so real that it triumphed over his abject position; the
despotism so much a part of him, that it rose above his poverty.
There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making
of him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed
to leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You
trembled lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep
sightless hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see
brigands with torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt
that there was a lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: ble, ceases to hold the men's attention. Decks of cards
gradually appear on the seats, drawing generals and of-
ficers as the light draws mosquitoes.
The excitement of gambling soon absorbs every in-
terest, the heat grows more and more intense. To breathe
is to inhale the air of barracks, prison, brothel, and
pigsty all in one.
And rising above the babble, from the car ahead ever
the shrill voice, "Gentlemen, a well-dressed young man
stole . . ."
The streets in Aguascalientes were so many refuse
The Underdogs |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: questions, the Court condemned Michu to death, the Messieurs de
Simeuse to twenty-four years' and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre to ten
years, penal servitude at hard labor. Gothard was acquitted.
The whole audience was eager to observe the bearing of the five guilty
men in this supreme moment of their lives. The four gentlemen looked
at Laurence, who returned them, with dry eyes, the ardent look of the
martyrs.
"She would have wept had we been acquitted," said the younger de
Simeuse to his brother.
Never did convicted men meet an unjust fate with serener brows or
countenances more worthy of their manhood than these five victims of a
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