| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: between his knees, and cut the cords which prevented him from using
his hands; in a moment he was free. He at once seized a rifle and a
dagger, then taking the precautions to provide himself with a sack of
dried dates, oats, and powder and shot, and to fasten a scimiter to
his waist, he leaped on to a horse, and spurred on vigorously in the
direction where he thought to find the French army. So impatient was
he to see a bivouac again that he pressed on the already tired courser
at such speed, that its flanks were lacerated with his spurs, and at
last the poor animal died, leaving the Frenchman alone in the desert.
After walking some time in the sand with all the courage of an escaped
convict, the soldier was obliged to stop, as the day had already
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with
songs, the subject of which was the Happy Valley. Their appetites
were excited by frequent enumerations of different enjoyments, and
revelry and merriment were the business of every hour, from the
dawn of morning to the close of the evening.
These methods were generally successful; few of the princes had
ever wished to enlarge their bounds, but passed their lives in full
conviction that they had all within their reach that art or nature
could bestow, and pitied those whom nature had excluded from this
seat of tranquillity as the sport of chance and the slaves of
misery.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: risk his life without a bodyguard of those damned owls. Gudin," he
added, "go and tell Captain Lebrun that he must rub those fellows'
noses at Florigny without me, and come back yourself in a flash. You
know the paths. I'll wait till you return, and /then/--we'll avenge
those murders at La Vivetiere. Thunder! how he runs," he added, seeing
Gudin disappear as if by magic. "Gerard would have loved him."
On his return Gudin found Hulot's little band increased in numbers by
the arrival of several soldiers taken from the various posts in the
town. The commandant ordered him to choose a dozen of his compatriots
who could best counterfeit the Chouans, and take them out by the Porte
Saint-Leonard, so as to creep round the side of the Saint-Sulpice
The Chouans |
