| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: language of books. My quickness of apprehension,
and celerity of reply, had entirely deserted me;
when I delivered my opinion, or detailed my knowledge,
I was bewildered by an unseasonable interrogatory,
disconcerted by any slight opposition, and
overwhelmed and lost in dejection, when the smallest
advantage was gained against me in dispute. I
became decisive and dogmatical, impatient of
contradiction, perpetually jealous of my character,
insolent to such as acknowledged my superiority, and
sullen and malignant to all who refused to receive
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: "Isn't just one look rather slight basis for--"
"Now, old man, you know better than that!" Beverly paused to chuckle. "My
grandmother Livingston," he resumed, "knew Aaron Burr, and she used to
say that he had an eye which no honest woman could meet without a blush.
I don't know whether your fire-eater is a Launcelot, or a Galahad, but
that girl's eye at dinner--"
"Did he blush?" I laughed.
"Not that I saw. But really, old man, confound it, you know! He's no sort
of husband for her. How can he make her happy and how can she make him
happy, and how can either of them hit it off with the other the least
little bit? She's expensive, he's not; she's up-to-date, he's not; she's
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: the only part of her face which still kept its beautiful proportions,
wore an expression of aggressive will and covert threats. In spite of
the waxy texture of her elongated face, inward fires were issuing from
it like the fluid mist which seems to flame above the fields of a hot
day. Her hollow temples, her sunken cheeks showed the interior
formation of the face, and the smile upon her whitened lips vaguely
resembled the grin of death. Her robe, which was folded across her
breast, showed the emaciation of her beautiful figure. The expression
of her head said plainly that she knew she was changed, and that the
thought filled her with bitterness. She was no longer the arch
Henriette, nor the sublime and saintly Madame de Mortsauf, but the
The Lily of the Valley |
