| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: Christian resignation, were so many eloquent signs of a sentiment that
could no more be effaced from her heart than from mine. Walking slowly
down that pretty avenue and making these reflections, I was no longer
twenty-five, I was fifty years old. A man passes in a moment, even
more quickly than a woman, from youth to middle age. Though long ago I
drove these evil thoughts away from me, I was then possessed by them,
I must avow it. Perhaps I owed their presence in my mind to the
Tuileries, to the king's cabinet. Who could resist the polluting
spirit of Louis XVIII.?
When I reached the end of the avenue I turned and rushed back in the
twinkling of an eye, seeing that Henriette was still there, and alone!
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: LORD JUSTICE
For that reason, Madam,
Being the fountain-head of life and death
Whence, like a mighty river, justice flows,
Without thy presence justice is dried up
And fails of purpose: thou must tarry here.
DUCHESS
What, wilt thou keep me here against my will?
LORD JUSTICE
We pray thy will be not against the law.
DUCHESS
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: Castaing now said that he had bought the poisons at Auguste's
request, partly to kill the noisy cats and dogs, and partly for
the purpose of their making experiments on animals. Asked why he
had not given this second reason before, he said that as Auguste
was not a medical man it would have been damaging to his
reputation to divulge the fact of his wishing to make
unauthorised experiments on animals. "Why go to Paris for the
poison?" asked the judge, "there was a chemist a few yards from
the hotel. And when in Paris, why go to two chemists?" To all
these questions Castaing's answers were such as to lead the
President to express a doubt as to whether they were likely to
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
