| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: Now, that scolding wife sticks in my gizzard so
pluckily that I can't laugh for the blood and nowns of
me. Let me look grave here, and I'll laugh your
belly full, where the old creature's a-dying.
JESSAMY
"And she asked her husband"--[Bell rings.] My
master's bell! he's returned, I fear.--Here, Mr. Jona-
than, take this gamut; and I make no doubt but with
a few years' close application, you may be able to
smile gracefully." [Exeunt severally.
SCENE II.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: seems to sleep, does he not?"
The old man's face wore that flower of fleeting beauty which rests
upon the features of the dead who die a painless death; light appeared
to radiate from it.
"Did he give you anything secretly before he died?" whispered M.
Bongrand.
"Nothing," she said; "he spoke only of a letter."
"Good! it will certainly be found," said Bongrand. "How fortunate for
you that the heirs demanded the sealing."
At daybreak Ursula bade adieu to the house where her happy youth was
passed; more particularly, to the modest chamber in which her love
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: the chink of gold, I saw gold spread before me, I was dazzled by
diamonds.--Ah! wait.
"One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of
my blade and cut a hole; I crept on my belly like a serpent; I worked
naked and mole-fashion, my hands in front of me, using the stone
itself to gain a purchase. I was to appear before my judges in two
days' time, I made a final effort, and that night I bored through the
wood and felt that there was space beyond.
"Judge of my surprise when I applied my eye to the hole. I was in the
ceiling of a vault, heaps of gold were dimly visible in the faint
light. The Doge himself and one of the Ten stood below; I could hear
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