| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: finding it, in his shame for Adelaide and the Baroness, he looked
at them with a blank amazement that made them laugh, turned pale,
felt his waistcoat, and said, "I must have made a mistake. I have
it somewhere no doubt."
In one end of the purse there were fifteen louis d'or, and in the
other some small change. The theft was so flagrant, and denied
with such effrontery, that Hippolyte no longer felt a doubt as to
his neighbors' morals. He stood still on the stairs, and got down
with some difficulty; his knees shook, he felt dizzy, he was in a
cold sweat, he shivered, and found himself unable to walk,
struggling, as he was, with the agonizing shock caused by the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: While almost all men feel an attraction drawing them to society,
few are attracted strongly to Nature. In their reaction to Nature
men appear to me for the most part, notwithstanding their arts,
lower than the animals. It is not often a beautiful relation, as
in the case of the animals. How little appreciation of the beauty
of the land- scape there is among us! We have to be told that the
Greeks called the world Beauty, or Order, but we do not see
clearly why they did so, and we esteem it at best only a curious
philological fact.
For my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of
border life, on the confines of a world into which I make
Walking |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: it turns up, you will win thirty-six louis," said a respectable-
looking, white-haired old man in answer to his inquiry.
Eugene staked the whole of his money on the number 21 (his own
age). There was a cry of surprise; before he knew what he had
done, he had won.
"Take your money off, sir," said the old gentleman; "you don't
often win twice running by that system."
Eugene took the rake that the old man handed to him, and drew in
his three thousand six hundred francs, and, still perfectly
ignorant of what he was about, staked again on the red. The
bystanders watched him enviously as they saw him continue to
Father Goriot |
