| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: ran cold and her voice grew faint. At last the thought occurred to her
that she had ceased to please her husband, and then indeed she was
seriously alarmed. That fear now filled her mind, drove her to
despair, then to feverish excitement, and became the text of many an
hour of melancholy reverie. She defended Balthazar at her own expense,
calling herself old and ugly; then she imagined a generous though
humiliating consideration for her in this secret occupation by which
he secured to her a negative fidelity; and she resolved to give him
back his independence by allowing one of those unspoken divorces which
make the happiness of many a marriage.
Before bidding farewell to conjugal life, Madame Claes made some
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: fortnight of such a life, and then I will offer them twopence for
what remains of their morality.
For my part, when I was turned out of the Stag, or the Hind, or
whatever it was, I would have set the temple of Diana on fire, if
it had been handy. There was no crime complete enough to express
my disapproval of human institutions. As for the CIGARETTE, I
never knew a man so altered. 'We have been taken for pedlars
again,' said he. 'Good God, what it must be to be a pedlar in
reality!' He particularised a complaint for every joint in the
landlady's body. Timon was a philanthropist alongside of him. And
then, when he was at the top of his maledictory bent, he would
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: of this alliance we lost Negrepelisse, a little town which was as
famous during the religious struggles as was my ancestor who then bore
the name. Captain de Negrepelisse was ruined by the burning of all his
property, for the Protestants did not spare a friend of Montluc's.
"The Crown was unjust to M. de Negrepelisse; he received neither a
marshal's baton, nor a post as governor, nor any indemnity; King
Charles IX., who was fond of him, died without being able to reward
him; Henri IV. arranged his marriage with Mademoiselle d'Espard, and
secured him the estates of that house, but all those of the
Negrepelisses had already passed into the hands of his creditors.
"My great-grandfather, the Marquis d'Espard, was, like me, placed
|
