| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: something, M. Debray," she said. Debray, who was slightly
disturbed at this visit, recovered himself when he saw the
calmness of the baroness, and took up a book marked by a
mother-of-pearl knife inlaid with gold. "Excuse me," said
the banker, "but you will tire yourself, baroness, by such
late hours, and M. Debray lives some distance from here."
Debray was petrified, not only to hear Danglars speak so
calmly and politely, but because it was apparent that
beneath outward politeness there really lurked a determined
spirit of opposition to anything his wife might wish to do.
The baroness was also surprised, and showed her astonishment
The Count of Monte Cristo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: though statements to this effect may be found in works of natural history,
I cannot find one case which will bear investigation. A structure used
only once in an animal's whole life, if of high importance to it, might be
modified to any extent by natural selection; for instance, the great jaws
possessed by certain insects, and used exclusively for opening the
cocoon--or the hard tip to the beak of nestling birds, used for breaking
the egg. It has been asserted, that of the best short-beaked
tumbler-pigeons more perish in the egg than are able to get out of it; so
that fanciers assist in the act of hatching. Now, if nature had to make
the beak of a full-grown pigeon very short for the bird's own advantage,
the process of modification would be very slow, and there would be
On the Origin of Species |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: priest's life?"
"Once outside the Abbaye de Chelles, I look upon myself as dead,"
added the nun who had not left the house, while the Sister that had
just returned held out the little box to the priest.
"Here are the wafers . . . but I can hear some one coming up the
stairs."
At this, the three began to listen. The sound ceased.
"Do not be alarmed if somebody tries to come in," said the priest.
"Somebody on whom we could depend was to make all necessary
arrangements for crossing the frontier. He is to come for the letters
that I have written to the Duc de Langeais and the Marquis de
|
