| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: begotten. The tale told by the little scene he had witnessed ran
parallel with the unhappy woman's opinion, which, however baseless
it might have been antecedently, had become true enough as
regarded himself.
A slow weight of despair, as distinct from a violent paroxysm as
starvation from a mortal shot, filled him and wrung him body and
soul. The discovery had not been altogether unexpected, for
throughout his anxiety of the last few days since the night in the
churchyard, he had been inclined to construe the uncertainty
unfavourably for himself. His hopes for the best had been but
periodic interruptions to a chronic fear of the worst.
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: into it. Everything that she thought common or ordinary was sold. To
find anything comparable to her sparkling splendor, you could only
look back to the days when Sophie Arnould, a Guimard, or a Duthe, in
all her glory, squandered the fortunes of princes.
"How far did this sumptuous existence affect du Bruel? It is a
delicate question to ask, and a still more delicate one to answer. A
single incident will suffice to give you an idea of Tullia's
crotchets. Her bed-spread of Brussels lace was worth ten thousand
francs. A famous actress had another like it. As soon as Claudine
heard this, she allowed her cat, a splendid Angora, to sleep on the
bed. That trait gives you the woman. Du Bruel dared not say a word; he
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: It is enough to know that fifty per cent of the men in the public
saloons carry pistols about them.
The Chinaman waylays his adversary, and methodically chops him to
pieces with his hatchet. Then the press roars about the brutal
ferocity of the pagan.
The Italian reconstructs his friend with a long knife. The press
complains of the waywardness of the alien.
The Irishman and the native Californian in their hours of
discontent use the revolver, not once, but six times. The press
records the fact, and asks in the next column whether the world
can parallel the progress of San Francisco. The American who
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