| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: and gave him none of the reassurance conferred by the action of his
fancy. None the less he returned yet again, returned several
times, and finally, during six months, haunted the place with a
renewal of frequency and a strain of impatience. In winter the
church was unwarmed and exposure to cold forbidden him, but the
glow of his shrine was an influence in which he could almost bask.
He sat and wondered to what he had reduced his absent associate and
what she now did with the hours of her absence. There were other
churches, there were other altars, there were other candles; in one
way or another her piety would still operate; he couldn't
absolutely have deprived her of her rites. So he argued, but
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: So beautiful she was, that in spite of her faults I felt sorry for
her. There was a terrible storm of anguish in her heart; her haughty,
proud features were drawn and distorted with pain which she strove in
vain to disguise. The young man had come to be her evil genius. I
admired Gobseck, whose perspicacity had foreseen their future four
years ago at the first bill which she endorsed.
" 'Probably,' said I to myself, 'this monster with the angel face
controls every possible spring of action in her: rules her through
vanity, jealousy, pleasure, and the current of life in the world.' "
The Vicomtesse de Grandlieu broke in on the story.
"Why, the woman's very virtues have been turned against her," she
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: "No cruelty!" said Miss Ophelia. "I'm sure any girl might
rather be killed outright!"
"It might seem so to anybody with your feeling; but all these
creatures get used to it; it's the only way they can be kept
in order. Once let them feel that they are to take any airs about
delicacy, and all that, and they'll run all over you, just as my
servants always have. I've begun now to bring them under; and I'll
have them all to know that I'll send one out to be whipped, as soon
as another, if they don't mind themselves!" said Marie, looking
around her decidedly.
Jane hung her head and cowered at this, for she felt as if it
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
