| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: completeness. He realizes Pascal's /entre-deux/, he comprehends the
whole scale between tenderness and pitilessness, and, like
Epaminondas, he is equally great in extremes. And not merely so, his
epigram stamps the epoch; the /accoucheur/ is a modern innovation. All
the refinements of modern civilization are summed up in the phrase. It
is monumental."
"Look here, my dear Nathan, what farrago of nonsense is this?" asked
the Marquise in bewilderment.
"Madame la Marquise," returned Nathan, "you do not know the value of
these 'precious' phrases; I am talking Sainte-Beuve, the new kind of
French.--I resume. Walking one day arm in arm with a friend along the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be
silent! Oh, he will be silent!'
"'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from
her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me
pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the
window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and
was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was
conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the
garden below.
"I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and
rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: plank."
Without answering, Wilbur showed her a couple of blanket-rolls he
had brought off while he was unloading part of the stores that
afternoon. They took one apiece and spread them on the sand by
the bleached whale's skull. Moran pulled off her boots and
stretched herself upon her blanket with absolute unconcern, her
hands clasped under her head. Wilbur rolled up his coat for a
pillow and settled himself for the night with an assumed self-
possession. There was a long silence. Moran yawned again.
"I pulled the heel off my boot this morning," she said lazily,
"and I've been limping all day."
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