| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: horses, and the car, still empty, jogged away toward Hoboken.
Ann Eliza, left alone by the roadside, began to move
cautiously forward, looking about for a small red house with a
gable overhung by an elm-tree; but everything about her seemed
unfamiliar and forbidding. One or two surly looking men slouched
past with inquisitive glances, and she could not make up her mind
to stop and speak to them.
At length a tow-headed boy came out of a swinging door
suggestive of illicit conviviality, and to him Ann Eliza ventured
to confide her difficulty. The offer of five cents fired him with
an instant willingness to lead her to Mrs. Hochmuller, and he was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: went to see you; it would seem to show dislike or disrespect to your
husband; I will always spend a month or two every year with you in
Paris."
"Alone, already alone, and with him!" cried Natalie in terror,
interrupting her mother.
"But you wish to be his wife?"
"Yes, I wish it. But tell me how I should behave,--you, who did what
you pleased with my father. You know the way; I'll obey you blindly."
Madame Evangelista kissed her daughter's forehead. She had willed and
awaited this request.
"Child, my counsels must adept themselves to circumstances. All men
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first
is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the
second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to
avail himself of the beast and the man. This has been figuratively
taught to princes by ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and
many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse,
who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as
they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is
necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and
that one without the other is not durable. A prince, therefore, being
compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and
The Prince |
