| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: nervously to and fro. "Good Lord, what's th'
matter with me?" he said aloud.
He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were
useless. Whatever he had learned of himself was
here of no avail. He was an unknown quantity.
He saw that he would again be obliged to experi-
ment as he had in early youth. He must accumu-
late information of himself, and meanwhile he re-
solved to remain close upon his guard lest those
qualities of which he knew nothing should ever-
lastingly disgrace him. "Good Lord!" he re-
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: Rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, and luxury would be out of place
here, where we only aim at the purely patriarchalorama. If you
mean to cut a figure in Paris, my young friend," Vautrin
continued, with half-paternal jocularity, "you must have three
horses, a tilbury for the mornings, and a closed carriage for the
evening; you should spend altogether about nine thousand francs
on your stables. You would show yourself unworthy of your destiny
if you spent no more than three thousand francs with your tailor,
six hundred in perfumery, a hundred crowns to your shoemaker, and
a hundred more to your hatter. As for your laundress, there goes
another thousand francs; a young man of fashion must of necessity
Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: but the woman shall bear her iniquity.' Damn rough on us women;
but we must grin and put up wi' it! Haw haw! Well; she's got her
deserts now."
"Yes," said Phillotson, with biting sadness. "Cruelty is the law pervading
all nature and society; and we can't get out of it if we would!"
"Well--don't you forget to try it next time, old man."
"I cannot answer you, madam. I have never known much of womankind."
They had now reached the low levels bordering Alfredston,
and passing through the outskirts approached a mill, to which
Phillotson said his errand led him; whereupon they drew up,
and he alighted, bidding them good-night in a preoccupied mood.
Jude the Obscure |
