| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: listening.] "If the government would frankly state its intentions
without concealments of any kind, the liberals would know what they
had to deal with. An administration which sets its best friends
against itself, such men as those of the 'Debats,' Chateaubriand, and
Royer-Collard, is only to be pitied!"
Colleville [after consulting his colleagues]. "Come, Fleury, you're a
good fellow, but don't talk politics here; you don't know what harm
you may do us."
Fleury [dryly]. "Well, adieu, gentlemen; I have my work to do by four
o'clock."
While this idle talk had been going on, des Lupeaulx was closeted in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: for a good laugh, or opening for a confession, he was disconcerted by
what he saw. Katharine seemed equally oblivious of what was bad or of
what was good in him. Her expression suggested concentration upon
something entirely remote from her surroundings. The carelessness of
her attitude seemed to him rather masculine than feminine. His impulse
to break up the constraint was chilled, and once more the exasperating
sense of his own impotency returned to him. He could not help
contrasting Katharine with his vision of the engaging, whimsical
Cassandra; Katharine undemonstrative, inconsiderate, silent, and yet
so notable that he could never do without her good opinion.
She veered round upon him a moment later, as if, when her train of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: and help one another.
Well, this memorable battle continued to rage until the ground
was strewn with helmeted heads that had been cut off. Of all
the thousands that began the fight, there were only five left
standing. These now rushed from different parts of the field,
and, meeting in the middle of it, clashed their swords, and
struck at each other's hearts as fiercely as ever.
"Cadmus," said the voice again, "bid those five warriors
sheathe their swords. They will help you to build the city."
Without hesitating an instant, Cadmus stepped forward, with the
aspect of a king and a leader, and extending his drawn sword
Tanglewood Tales |
