| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: saw. She knew too well what he couldn't read and what she couldn't
write, and she taught him to cultivate indifference with a success
that did much for their good relations. Her invisible industry was
a convenience to him; it helped his contented thought of her, the
thought that rested in the dignity of her proud obscure life, her
little remunerated art and her little impenetrable home. Lost,
with her decayed relative, in her dim suburban world, she came to
the surface for him in distant places. She was really the
priestess of his altar, and whenever he quitted England he
committed it to her keeping. She proved to him afresh that women
have more of the spirit of religion than men; he felt his fidelity
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: reached this height, at which all things change their relative aspect.
Filled with the joys unutterable of a creator he had attained in his
love to all that genius has revealed to us of grandeur.
"No," he was thinking to himself as he watched the curling smoke of
his pipe, "she was not entirely deceived. She might break up my
friendship with Adam if she took a dislike to me; but if she coquetted
with me to amuse herself, what would become of me?"
The conceit of this last supposition was so foreign to the modest
nature and Teutonic timidity of the captain that he scolded himself
for admitting it, and went to bed, resolved to await events before
deciding on a course.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: eyes or flay me alive."
(Vv. 4853-4938.) In the midst of these words and disputes Erec
recovered from his swoon, like a man who awakes from sleep. No
wonder that he was amazed at the crowd of people he saw around.
But great was his grief and great his woe when he heard the voice
of his wife. He stepped to the floor from off the dais and
quickly drew his sword. Wrath and the love he bore his wife gave
him courage. He runs thither where he sees her, and strikes the
Count squarely upon the head, so that he beats out his brains
and, knocking in his forehead, leaves him senseless and
speechless; his blood and brains flow out. The knights spring
|
