| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: her parents' property to enable her brother to make a marriage worthy
of his name; thus preferring his happiness to her own, and sacrificing
her future to his interests,--for it was not to be supposed that
Mademoiselle de Temninck would marry late in life and without property
when, young and wealthy, she had met with no aspirant.
A few days later, Balthazar Claes made the acquaintance of
Mademoiselle de Temninck; with whom he fell deeply in love. At first,
Josephine de Temninck thought herself the object of a mere caprice,
and refused to listen to Monsieur Claes; but passion is contagious;
and to a poor girl who was lame and ill-made, the sense of inspiring
love in a young and handsome man carries with it such strong seduction
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: The letter had been given to the two Englishmen by a good friend
of theirs in London, who had been in America two years previously,
and had singled out Mr. J. L. Westgate from the many friends
he had left there as the consignee, as it were, of his compatriots.
"He is a capital fellow," the Englishman in London had said,
"and he has got an awfully pretty wife. He's tremendously hospitable--
he will do everything in the world for you; and as he knows everyone
over there, it is quite needless I should give you any other introduction.
He will make you see everyone; trust to him for putting you into circulation.
He has got a tremendously pretty wife." It was natural that in the hour
of tribulation Lord Lambeth and Mr. Percy Beaumont should have bethought
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: of rose-wood, included in the purchase of the house.
By the window nearest to the door stood a straw chair, whose legs were
raised on castors to lift its occupant, Madame Grandet, to a height
from which she could see the passers-by. A work-table of stained
cherry-wood filled up the embrasure, and the little armchair of
Eugenie Grandet stood beside it. In this spot the lives had flowed
peacefully onward for fifteen years, in a round of constant work from
the month of April to the month of November. On the first day of the
latter month they took their winter station by the chimney. Not until
that day did Grandet permit a fire to be lighted; and on the thirty-
first of March it was extinguished, without regard either to the
Eugenie Grandet |
