| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: ashamed, and so, only half realizing what he was doing, he began
to stroll along with her.
"Why did you never come to see me again?" she asked.
George hesitated. "I--I--" he stammered--"I've been married
since then."
She laughed. "Oh! So that's it!" And then, as they came to a
bench under some trees, "Won't you sit down a while?" There was
allurement in her glance, but it made George shudder. It was
incredible to him that he had ever been attracted by this crude
girl. The spell was now broken completely.
She quickly saw that something was wrong. "You don't seem very
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: of the witnesses, the wind, the snow storm, the danger of being
lost; and then all at once this splendid, brightly lighted room,
the sounds of the piano, the lovely girls, the curly-headed
children, the gay, happy laughter -- such a transformation seemed
to him like a fairy tale, and it seemed incredible that such
transitions were possible at the distance of some two miles in
the course of one hour. And dreary thoughts prevented him from
enjoying himself, and he kept thinking this was not life here,
but bits of life fragments, that everything here was accidental,
that one could draw no conclusions from it; and he even felt
sorry for these girls, who were living and would end their lives
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: while he felt that he was really alone, and lost in the wide ocean,
lost and alone in the world and in life.
"There is no need to cry, lad; there is a God for us all," said an old
sailor, with rough kindliness in his thick voice.
The boy thanked him with pride in his eyes. Then he bowed his head,
and resigned himself to a sailor's life. He was a father.
ANGOULEME, August, 1832.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Brandon, Lady Marie Augusta
The Member for Arcis
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