| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: ture land on the sunny slope of a pine-clad pass to
a Jew inn-keeper in order to pay the people of the
ship that took men to America to get rich in a
short time.
"He must have been a real adventurer at heart,
for how many of the greatest enterprises in the
conquest of the earth had for their beginning just
such a bargaining away of the paternal cow for the
mirage or true gold far away! I have been telling
you more or less in my own words what I learned
fragmentarily in the course of two or three years,
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: antiphrasis. He was sitting in his armchair, motionless as a statue,
staring fixedly at the mantel-shelf, where he seemed to read the
figures of his statements. A lamp, with a pedestal that had once been
green, was burning in the room; but so far from taking color from its
smoky light, his face seemed to stand out positively paler against the
background. He pointed to a chair set for me, but not a word did he
say.
" 'What thoughts can this being have in his mind?' said I to myself.
'Does he know that a God exists; does he know there are such things as
feeling, woman, happiness?' I pitied him as I might have pitied a
diseased creature. But, at the same time, I knew quite well that while
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: gratitude. Then Erec mounts and takes his leave, and they set
out upon their way. As they ride, he frequently warns Enide that
if she sees anything she should not be so bold as to speak to him
about it. Meanwhile, there entered the house a hundred knights
well armed, and very much dismayed they were to find Erec no
longer there. Then the Count learned that the lady had deceived
him. He discovered the footsteps of the horses, and they all
followed the trail, the Count threatening Erec and vowing that,
if he can come up with him, nothing can keep him from having his
head on the spot. "A curse on him who now hangs back, and does
not spur on fast!" quoth he; "he who presents me with the head of
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