| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: some day it will be turned into a proverb. It is, in fact, the moral
of this adventure, which I should not allow myself to tell if it were
not echoing at the present moment through all the salons of Paris.
The Marquise de Listomere danced, about a month ago, with a young man
as modest as he is lively, full of good qualities, but exhibiting,
chiefly, his defects. He is ardent, but he laughs at ardor; he has
talent, and he hides it; he plays the learned man with aristocrats,
and the aristocrat with learned men. Eugene de Rastignac is one of
those extremely clever young men who try all things, and seem to sound
others to discover what the future has in store. While awaiting the
age of ambition, he scoffs at everything; he has grace and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: doorway of the front verandah looking at the chaos of overturned
furniture. Finally he picked up the table and sat on it while
the monkey let itself down from the roof-stick by its chain and
perched on his shoulder. When the bananas came they had their
breakfast together; both hungry, both eating greedily and
showering the skins round them recklessly, in the trusting
silence of perfect friendship. Ali went away, grumbling, to cook
some rice himself, for all the women about the house had
disappeared; he did not know where. Almayer did not seem to
care, and, after he finished eating, he sat on the table swinging
his legs and staring at the river as if lost in thought.
Almayer's Folly |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: Philip, and Jemmie Falconer might have known what she had to
expect from the beginning. What made her set her cap at Sir
Philip? He would never have looked at her if she had not thrown
herself at his head, with her poor ten thousand pounds. I am
sure, if it is money he wanted, she spoiled his market. I know
where Sir Philip could have done much better. And then, if she
WOULD have the man, could not she try to make him more
comfortable at home, and have his friends oftener, and not plague
him with the squalling children, and take care all was handsome
and in good style about the house? I declare I think Sir Philip
would have made a very domestic man, with a woman who knew how to
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