| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: not to be moved, inexorable!' he continued. 'I am there as the
avenger, the apparition of Remorse. So much for hypotheses. I reached
the house.
" ' "Madame la Comtesse is asleep," says the maid.
" ' "When can I see her?"
" ' "At twelve o'clock."
" ' "Is Madame la Comtesse ill?"
" ' "No, sir, but she only came home at three o'clock this morning
from a ball."
" ' "My name is Gobseck, tell her that I shall call again at twelve
o'clock," and I went out, leaving traces of my muddy boots on the
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: sat up in a white fury and put on the clothes that had been left me.
Then, still raging, I sat on the edge of the berth and put on the
obnoxious tan shoes. The porter, called to his duties, made little
excursions back to me, to offer assistance and to chuckle at my
discomfiture. He stood by, outwardly decorous, but with little
irritating grins of amusement around his mouth, when I finally
emerged with the red tie in my hand.
"Bet the owner of those clothes didn't become them any more than
you do," he said, as he plied the ubiquitous whisk broom.
"When I get the owner of these clothes," I retorted grimly, "he
will need a shroud. Where's the conductor?"
The Man in Lower Ten |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: that about.[19] On the contrary, if by proclaiming all the blessings
which I owe to god and men; if, by blazoning forth the opinion which I
entertain with regard to myself, I end by wearying the court, even so
will I choose death rather than supplicate in servile sort for leave
to live a little longer merely to gain a life impoverished in place of
death."
[19] Or, "I will give no helping hand to that."
It was in this determination, Hermogenes states, that, when the
prosecution accused him of not recognising the gods recognised by the
state, but introducing novel divinities and corrupting the young,
Socrates stepped forward and said: "In the first place, sirs, I am at
The Apology |
