| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: longed for at every moment, was certain to have a salary of six
thousand francs attached to it, as well as the alleviation of living
in her own father's house, or under the Camusots' roof, and all the
advantages of a father's fortune on either side. If the adage, "Out of
sight is out of mind," holds good of most women, it is particularly
true where family feeling or royal or ministerial patronage is
concerned. The personal attendants of kings prosper at all times; you
take an interest in a man, be it only a man in livery, if you see him
every day.
Mme. Camusot, regarding herself as a bird of passage, had taken a
little house in the Rue du Cygne. Furnished lodgings there were none;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Oblige the father, and protect the son.
Yours is the pow'r; nor Proserpine in vain
Has made you priestess of her nightly reign.
If Orpheus, arm'd with his enchanting lyre,
The ruthless king with pity could inspire,
And from the shades below redeem his wife;
If Pollux, off'ring his alternate life,
Could free his brother, and can daily go
By turns aloft, by turns descend below-
Why name I Theseus, or his greater friend,
Who trod the downward path, and upward could ascend?
Aeneid |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: to Innes (whom he had just fined, and who just impeached his ruling) to
succeed him in the chair, stepped down from the platform, and took his
place by the chimney-piece, the shine of many wax tapers from above
illuminating his pale face, the glow of the great red fire relieving
from behind his slim figure. He had to propose, as an amendment to the
next subject in the case-book, "Whether capital punishment be consistent
with God's will or man's policy?"
A breath of embarrassment, of something like alarm, passed round the
room, so daring did these words appear upon the lips of Hermiston's only
son. But the amendment was not seconded; the previous question was
promptly moved and unanimously voted, and the momentary scandal smuggled
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