| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: the mistress, pretending, that is, to give less than I receive, and I
revel in this deception. To a woman what can be sweeter than to see
passion ever held in check by tenderness, and the man who is her
master stayed, like a timid suitor, by a word from her, within the
limits that she chooses?
You asked me to describe him; but, Renee, it is not possible to make a
portrait of the man we love. How could the heart be kept out of the
work? Besides, to be frank between ourselves, we may admit that one of
the dire effects of civilization on our manners is to make of man in
society a being so utterly different from the natural man of strong
feeling, that sometimes not a single point of likeness can be found
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: to it in baby language, prophesied that it would grow to be taller
than himself, insinuated compliments for his son's benefit, and
restored the child to the Normandy nurse who had charge of it.
Celestine, on her part, gave the Baroness a look, as much as to say,
"What a delightful man!" and she naturally took her father-in-law's
part against her father.
After thus playing the charming father-in-law and the indulgent
grandpapa, the Baron took his son into the garden, and laid before him
a variety of observations full of good sense as to the attitude to be
taken up by the Chamber on a certain ticklish question which had that
morning come under discussion. The young lawyer was struck with
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: and wait for you,' said the girl, 'and that no one may recognize me, I
will change myself into a red stone landmark.' Then Roland went away,
and the girl stood like a red landmark in the field and waited for her
beloved. But when Roland got home, he fell into the snares of another,
who so fascinated him that he forgot the maiden. The poor girl
remained there a long time, but at length, as he did not return at
all, she was sad, and changed herself into a flower, and thought:
'Someone will surely come this way, and trample me down.'
It befell, however, that a shepherd kept his sheep in the field and
saw the flower, and as it was so pretty, plucked it, took it with him,
and laid it away in his chest. From that time forth, strange things
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
