| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: compelled him to wipe them continually, she considered him to be
a very gentlemanly and pleasant-looking man. Moreover, the widow
saw favorable indications of character in the well-developed
calves of his legs and in his square-shaped nose, indications
still further borne out by the worthy man's full-moon countenance
and look of stupid good-nature. This, in all probability, was a
strongly-build animal, whose brains mostly consisted in a
capacity for affection. His hair, worn in ailes de pigeon, and
duly powdered every morning by the barber from the Ecole
Polytechnique, described five points on his low forehead, and
made an elegant setting to his face. Though his manners were
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: everything attracted him.
And never was there a purer or more ardent love. On both sides
the same trustfulness, the same delicacy, gave their passion
increase without the aid of those sacrifices by which many
persons try to prove their affection. Between these two there was
such a constant interchange of sweet emotion that they knew not
which gave or received the most.
A spontaneous affinity made the union of their souls a close one.
The progress of this true feeling was so rapid that two months
after the accident to which the painter owed the happiness of
knowing Adelaide, their lives were one life. From early morning
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: death had been long delayed, time might have acted as a
dissolvent, or the young lady's resolve have failed; but it
seemed impossible that the white heat of ardor in which Wyant had
left the lovers should have cooled in a few short weeks.
As he ascended the vaulted stairway the atmosphere of the place
seemed a reply to his conjectures. The same numbing air fell on
him, like an emanation from some persistent will-power, a
something fierce and imminent which might reduce to impotence
every impulse within its range. Wyant could almost fancy a hand
on his shoulder, guiding him upward with the ironical intent of
confronting him with the evidence of its work.
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