| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: "Are you still in pain, my Zizi?" asked his mother, who had been
gazing at him throughout the meal.
He started and blushed as he said that he was very well now, but the
worn-out insatiate expression of a girl who has danced too much did
not fade from his face.
"What's the matter with your neck?" resumed Mme Hugon in an alarmed
tone. "It's all red."
He was embarrassed and stammered. He did not know--he had nothing
the matter with his neck. Then drawing his shirt collar up:
"Ah yes, some insect stung me there!"
The Marquis de Chouard had cast a sidelong glance at the little red
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates
did and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards
new worlds? No. Though it is impossible to deny that this
persistent observer of human chemistry possessed that antique
science of the Mages, that is to say, knowledge of the elements
in fusion, the causes of life, life antecedent to life, and what
it must be in its incubation or ever it IS, it must be confessed
that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely personal.
Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now
suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue
to repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: At this moment nine o'clock struck. D'Artagnan started.
"Ah, yes," said Porthos, "there is nine o'clock. We have a
rendezvous, you remember, at the Place Royale."
"Ah! stop! hold your peace, Porthos, don't remind me of it;
'tis that which has made me so cross since yesterday. I
shall not go."
"Why?" asked Porthos.
"Because it is a grievous thing for me to meet again those
two men who caused the failure of our enterprise."
"And yet," said Porthos, "neither of them had any advantage
over us. I still had a loaded pistol and you were in full
Twenty Years After |
