| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: From the highest tower a loud blast upon a conch summoned from far and
near all the slaves belonging to the castle.
CHAPTER II
The ramparts were thronged with people when at last Vitellius entered
the castle gates, leaning on the arm of his interpreter. Behind them
came an imposing red litter, decorated with plumes and mirrors. The
proconsul wore a toga ornamented with the laticlave, a broad purple
band extending down the front of the garment, indicating his rank; and
his feet were encased in the kind of buskins worn by consuls. A guard
of lictors surrounded him. Against the wall they placed their twelve
fasces--a bundle of sticks with an axe in the centre. And the populace
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: that the two men had shaken hands; on the other hand, not a single
word about their former rivalry had ever escaped their lips;
perhaps that was all forgotten now.
The silence of a few moments was broken by Servadac saying, "Do you
not think we ought to explain our situation to the Spaniards?"
"No, no, your Excellency," burst in Ben Zoof, emphatically; "the fellows
are chicken-hearted enough already; only tell them what has happened,
and in sheer despondency they will not do another stroke of work."
"Besides," said Lieutenant Procope, who took very much the same view
as the orderly, "they are so miserably ignorant they would be sure
to misunderstand you."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: stare upon the heavens. She drew me after her along the aisles,
leaving a trace of her presence in the ashes that she shook from her
dress. Her bones rattled as she walked, like the bones of a skeleton;
and as we went I heard behind me the tinkling of a little bell, a
thin, sharp sound that rang through my head like the notes of a
harmonica.
"Suffer!" she cried, "suffer! So it must be!"
We came out of the church; we went through the dirtiest streets of the
town, till we came at last to a dingy dwelling, and she bade me enter
in. She dragged me with her, calling to me in a harsh, tuneless voice
like a cracked bell:
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