| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: February, 1830, Madame Clapart obtained this promotion for her son
through the influence of Madame la Dauphine, granted to the Abbe
Gaudron, now rector of Saint-Pauls.
Although Oscar outwardly professed to be devoted to the Bourbons, in
the depths of his heart he was a liberal. Therefore, in the struggle
of 1830, he went over to the side of the people. This desertion, which
had an importance due to the crisis in which it took place, brought
him before the eyes of the public. During the excitement of triumph in
the month of August he was promoted lieutenant, received the cross of
the Legion of honor, and was attached as aide-de-camp to La Fayette,
who gave him the rank of captain in 1832. When the amateur of the best
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: a great many stories, and she listened with charmed avidity.
Her eyes rested upon his lips; she was very serious; sometimes,
from her air of wondering gravity, he thought she was displeased.
But Felix never believed for more than a single moment in any displeasure
of his own producing. This would have been fatuity if the optimism
it expressed had not been much more a hope than a prejudice.
It is beside the matter to say that he had a good conscience;
for the best conscience is a sort of self-reproach, and this young man's
brilliantly healthy nature spent itself in objective good intentions
which were ignorant of any test save exactness in hitting their mark.
He told Gertrude how he had walked over France and Italy with a painter's
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.
All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.
We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
Ballads |
