| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: Madeleine slipped her head from her father's hand, glanced at the open
door, and glided away like an eel, Jacques following her. They
rejoined their mother, and I heard their voices and their movements,
sounding in the distance like the murmur of bees about a hive.
I watched the count, trying to guess his character, but I became so
interested in certain leading traits that I got no further than a
superficial examination of his personality. Though he was only forty-
five years old, he seemed nearer sixty, so much had the great
shipwreck at the close of the eighteenth century aged him. The
crescent of hair which monastically fringed the back of his head,
otherwise completely bald, ended at the ears in little tufts of gray
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: converse among poets more grovelling, miry, and dull. All arts of
civilising others render thee rude and untractable; courts have
taught thee ill manners, and polite conversation has finished thee
a pedant. Besides, a greater coward burdeneth not the army. But
never despond; I pass my word, whatever spoil thou takest shall
certainly be thy own; though I hope that vile carcase will first
become a prey to kites and worms."
Bentley durst not reply, but, half choked with spleen and rage,
withdrew, in full resolution of performing some great achievement.
With him, for his aid and companion, he took his beloved Wotton,
resolving by policy or surprise to attempt some neglected quarter
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: face of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly
kindness, he began to beat about the bush.
"Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between
my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had
nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can
you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There
is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted
Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious.
. . . Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we
go to Mass."
These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their
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