| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: paper and put the treaty on the top of it, "you will see that your
Majesty owes him six thousand crowns. Have the goodness to take pity
on us. See, madame!" and he held the treaty out to her. "Read it; the
account dates from the time the late king came to the throne."
Catherine was bewildered by the preamble of the treaty which met her
eye, but she did not lose her head. She folded the paper quickly,
admiring the audacity and presence of mind of the youth, and feeling
sure that after performing such a masterly stroke he would not fail to
understand her. She therefore tapped him on the head with the folded
paper, saying:--
"It is very clumsy of you, my little friend, to present your bill
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: whose proceedings we have any Interest. You must not expect
scandal for by the same rule we are equally debarred either from
hearing or inventing it.--You must expect from me nothing but
the melancholy effusions of a broken Heart which is ever
reverting to the Happiness it once enjoyed and which ill supports
its present wretchedness. The Possibility of being able to
write, to speak, to you of my lost Henry will be a luxury to me,
and your goodness will not I know refuse to read what it will so
much releive my Heart to write. I once thought that to have what
is in general called a Freind (I mean one of my own sex to whom I
might speak with less reserve than to any other person)
Love and Friendship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: She took both my hands in hers and murmured, `I had heard you
were coming.' I noticed she was not very young--I mean not girlish.
She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering.
The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light
of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead.
This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded
by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me.
Their glance was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful.
She carried her sorrowful head as though she were proud
of that sorrow, as though she would say, `I--I alone know
how to mourn for him as he deserves.' But while we were still
Heart of Darkness |
