| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'Nay, sir, not that, at least,' said Nance; 'not
discontented. If I were to be discontented, how should I
look those that have real sorrows in the face? I have faults
enough, but not that fault; and I have my merits too, for I
have a good opinion of myself. But for beauty, I am not so
simple but that I can tell a banter from a compliment.'
'Nay, nay,' said Mr. Archer, 'I had half forgotten; grief is
selfish, and I was thinking of myself and not of you, or I
had never blurted out so bold a piece of praise. 'Tis the
best proof of my sincerity. But come, now, I would lay a
wager you are no coward?'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: which were wet with evening dew. The moment his fingers touched
them they became strangely withered and dried up as with a week's
sunshine. Thus the pair proceeded, at a good free pace, until
suddenly, in a gloomy hollow of the road, Goodman Brown sat
himself down on the stump of a tree and refused to go any
farther.
"Friend," said he, stubbornly, "my mind is made up. Not another
step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do
choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven:
is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after
her?"
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: "Madame had just received such a fine love-letter; and she read it,"
said Caroline to the housemaid.
"I should never have thought that of madame," replied the other, quite
surprised.
That evening Madame de Listomere went to a party at the Marquis de
Beauseant's, where Rastignac would probably betake himself. It was
Saturday. The Marquis de Beauseant was in some way a connection of
Monsieur de Rastignac, and the young man was not likely to miss
coming. By two in the morning Madame de Listomere, who had gone there
solely for the purpose of crushing Eugene by her coldness, discovered
that she was waiting in vain. A brilliant man--Stendhal--has given the
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