| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: pledge yourself, here, in presence of your whole family, to consent to
our marriage, if mademoiselle will accept me as her husband, on the
day when you have retrieved your failure?"
There was an instant's silence, during which all present were affected
by the emotions painted on the worn face of the poor man.
"Yes," he said, at last.
Anselme made a gesture of unspeakable joy, as he took the hand which
Cesarine held out to him, and kissed it.
"You consent, then?" he said to her.
"Yes," she answered.
"Now that I am one of the family, I have the right to concern myself
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: Indian to waft upon him, and another stood behind the chair of Gaston
Villere. Each of these servants wore one single white garment, and
offered the many dishes to the gente fina and refilled their glasses. At
the lower end of the table a general attendant wafted upon mesclados--the
half-breeds. There was meat with spices, and roasted quail, with various
cakes and other preparations of grain; also the brown fresh olives and
grapes, with several sorts of figs and plums, and preserved fruits, and
white and red wine--the white fifty years old. Beneath the quiet shining
of candles, fresh-cut flowers leaned from vessels of old Mexican and
Spanish make.
There at one end of this feast sat the wild, pastoral, gaudy company,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: Meanwhile, in this altered night, we proceeded on our way
among the scents and silence of the forest, reached the top
of the grade, wound up by Hanson's, and came at last to a
stand under the flying gargoyle of the chute. Sam, who had
been lying back, fast asleep, with the moon on his face, got
down, with the remark that it was pleasant "to be home." The
waggon turned and drove away, the noise gently dying in the
woods, and we clambered up the rough path, Caliban's great
feat of engineering, and came home to Silverado.
The moon shone in at the eastern doors and windows, and over
the lumber on the platform. The one tall pine beside. the
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