| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: women in summer; should the weather be inclement, they added a
vest of skins, similar to the robe.
The men carefully eradicated every vestige of a beard,
considering it a great deformity. They looked with disgust at the
whiskers and well-furnished chins of the white men, and in
derision called them Long-beards. Both sexes, on the other hand,
cherished the hair of the head, which with them is generally
black and rather coarse. They allowed it to grow to a great
length and were very proud and careful of it, sometimes wearing
it plaited, sometimes wound round the head in fanciful tresses.
No greater affront could be offered to them than to cut off their
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: candidate who has never been returned since the year 1816. As to
countenance--a wizened, wrinkled, sunburned face, and long, sleek
locks of scanty gray hair; as to character--an incredible mixture
of homely sense and sheer silliness; of a rich man's overbearing
ways, and a total lack of manners; just the kind of husband who
is almost entirely led by his wife, yet imagines himself to be
the master; apt to domineer in trifles, and to let more important
things slip past unheeded--there you have the man!
But the Countess! Ah, how sharp and startling the contrast
between husband and wife! The Countess was a little woman, with a
flat, graceful figure and enchanting shape; so fragile, so dainty
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: mud upon the wheels of her travelling-carriage, which had just crossed
Italy, France, and Spain. It was, of course, the Marana,--the Marana
who, in spite of her thirty-six years, was still in all the glory of
her ravishing beauty; the Marana who, being at that time the mistress
of a king, had left Naples, the fetes, the skies of Naples, the climax
of her life of luxury, on hearing from her royal lover of the events
in Spain and the siege of Tarragona.
"Tarragona! I must get to Tarragona before the town is taken!" she
cried. "Ten days to reach Tarragona!"
Then without caring for crown or court, she arrived in Tarragona,
furnished with an almost imperial safe-conduct; furnished too with
|
