| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: living and not a bad one, now in this way and now in that, but
though I am ashamed to say it, mostly by gaming, at which I had
great luck. One night I met this man Juan de Garcia--for in his
hate he gave you his true name when he would have stabbed you--at
play. Even then he had an evil fame, though he was scarcely more
than a lad, but he was handsome in person, set high in birth, and
of a pleasing manner. It chanced that he won of me at the dice,
and being in a good humour, he took me to visit at the house of his
aunt, his uncle's widow, a lady of Seville. This aunt had one
child, a daughter, and that daughter was your mother. Now your
mother, Luisa de Garcia, was affianced to her cousin Juan de
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: itself. Sarrasine was beloved!
" 'If it is a mere caprice,' he thought, already accusing his mistress
of too great ardor, 'she does not know the sort of domination to which
she is about to become subject. Her caprice will last, I trust, as
long as my life.'
"At that moment, three light taps on the door of his box attracted the
artist's attention. He opened the door. An old woman entered with an
air of mystery.
" 'Young man,' she said, 'if you wish to be happy, be prudent. Wrap
yourself in a cloak, pull a broad-brimmed hat over your eyes, and be
on the Rue du Corso, in front of the Hotel d'Espagne, about ten
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: . . He masters by his devices the tenant of the fields.
SOPHOCLES.
Who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
JOB.
THE DONKEY, THE PACK, AND THE PACK-SADDLE
IN a little place called Le Monastier, in a pleasant highland
valley fifteen miles from Le Puy, I spent about a month of fine
days. Monastier is notable for the making of lace, for
drunkenness, for freedom of language, and for unparalleled
political dissension. There are adherents of each of the four
French parties - Legitimists, Orleanists, Imperialists, and
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