| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers
encountered soft warm curls. In utter amazement, Silas fell on his
knees and bent his head low to examine the marvel: it was a sleeping
child--a round, fair thing, with soft yellow rings all over its
head. Could this be his little sister come back to him in a dream--
his little sister whom he had carried about in his arms for a
year before she died, when he was a small boy without shoes or
stockings? That was the first thought that darted across Silas's
blank wonderment. _Was_ it a dream? He rose to his feet again,
pushed his logs together, and, throwing on some dried leaves and
sticks, raised a flame; but the flame did not disperse the vision--
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: "Now we mustn't forget any body," said Birotteau.
"If we forget any one," said Constance, "they won't forget it. Madame
Derville, who never called before, sailed down upon me in all her
glory yesterday."
"She is very pretty," said Cesarine. "I liked her."
"And yet before her marriage she was even less than I was," said
Constance. "She did plain sewing in the Rue Montmartre; she made
shirts for your father."
"Well, now let us begin the list," said Birotteau, "with the upper-
crust people. Cesarine, write down Monsieur le Duc and Madame la
Duchesse de Lenoncourt--"
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: Pimpernel and Percy Blakeney are one and the same person. He will
follow him to Calais, and there will lay hands on him. You know as
well as I do the fate that awaits him at the hands of the
Revolutionary Government of France. No interference from
England--from King George himself--would save him. Robespierre and
his gang would see to it that the interference came too late. But not
only that, the much-trusted leader will also have been unconsciously
the means of revealing the hiding-place of the Comte de Tournay and of
all those who, even now, are placing their hopes in him."
She had spoken quietly, dispassionately, and with firm,
unbending resolution. Her purpose was to make that young man trust
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
