| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: presence. Suzon, the old man-servant, albeit he was by no means in his
novitiate, at last mistook the visitor for a petitioner, come to
propose a thousand crowns if Maxime would obtain a license to sell
postage stamps for a young lady. Suzon, without the slightest
suspicion of the little scamp, a thoroughbred Paris street-boy into
whom prudence had been rubbed by repeated personal experience of the
police-courts, induced his master to receive him. Can you see the man
of business, with an uneasy eye, a bald forehead, and scarcely any
hair on his head, standing in his threadbare jacket and muddy boots--"
"What a picture of a Dun!" cried Lousteau.
"--standing before the Count, that image of flaunting Debt, in his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: actor are commonly actors; of the savant, savants; of the farmer, farmers;
of the sailor, sailors. So generally is this the case that it would almost
attract attention and cause amusement were the boon companion of the sea
captain a leading politician, and the intimate friend of the clergyman an
actor, or the dearest friend of the farmer an astronomer. Kind seeks kind.
The majority of men by choice frequent clubs where those of their own
calling are found, and especially as life advances and men sink deeper into
their professional grooves, they are found to seek fellowship mainly among
their fellow-workers. That this should be so is inevitable; common
amusements may create a certain bond between the young, but the performance
of common labours, necessitating identical knowledge, identical habits, and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: and kill him at close quarters, with all the more ease because the
little hill is covered with vines, and the evil-doer could lie in
ambush among the briers and brambles that overgrow them. We can
readily imagine why the usurer did not take that road after dark. The
Thune flows round the little hill; and the place is called the Close
of the Cross. No spot was ever more adapted for revenge or murder, for
the road to Ronquerolles continues to the bridge over the Avonne in
front of the pavilion of the Rendezvous, while that to Cerneux leads
off above the mail-road; so that between the four roads,--to Les
Aigues, Ville-aux-Fayes, Ronquerolles, and Cerneux,--a murderer could
choose his line of retreat and leave his pursuers in uncertainty.
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