| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: over a thousand looms, there remained to him some fifteen thousand
francs a year from landed property in the arrondissement of Douai, and
the house in the rue de Paris, whose furniture in itself was a
fortune. As to the family possessions in Leon, they had been in
litigation between the Molinas of Douai and the branch of the family
which remained in Spain. The Molinas of Leon won the domain and
assumed the title of Comtes de Nourho, though the Claes alone had a
legal right to it. But the pride of a Belgian burgher was superior to
the haughty arrogance of Castile: after the civil rights were
instituted, Balthazar Claes cast aside the ragged robes of his Spanish
nobility for his more illustrious descent from the Ghent martyr.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: as induced him to stay the infliction of a punishment so severe. He
then caused all the duennas of the palace, those that are here
present, to be brought before him; and after having dwelt upon the
enormity of our offence, and denounced duennas, their characters,
their evil ways and worse intrigues, laying to the charge of all
what I alone was guilty of, he said he would not visit us with capital
punishment, but with others of a slow nature which would be in
effect civil death for ever; and the very instant he ceased speaking
we all felt the pores of our faces opening, and pricking us, as if
with the points of needles. We at once put our hands up to our faces
and found ourselves in the state you now see."
Don Quixote |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: "Oh, what fun!" exclaimed Zoie, and she clapped her hands merrily
like a very small child. A moment later she stopped with sudden
misgiving.
"But, Aggie," she said fearfully, "suppose Alfred shouldn't come
back after I've got the baby? I'd be a widow with a child."
"Oh, he's sure to come back!" answered Aggie, with a confident
air. "He'll take the first train, home."
"I believe he will," assented Zoie joyfully. All her clouds were
again dispelled. "Aggie," she cried impulsively, "you are a
darling. You have just saved my life." And she clasped her arms
so tightly around Aggie's neck that her friend was in danger of
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