| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: awakened reflections calculated to depress deeply a mind like
Ravenswood's, which was naturally contemplative and melancholy.
His pride, however, soon shook off this feeling of dejection, and
it gave way to impatience upon finding that his volatile friend
Bucklaw seemed in no hurry to return with his borrowed steed,
which Ravenswood, before leaving the field, wished to see
restored to the obliging owner. As he was about to move towards
the group of assembled huntsmen, he was joined by a horseman,
who, like himself, had kept aloof during the fall of the deer.
This personage seemed stricken in years. He wore a scarlet
cloak, buttoning high upon his face, and his hat was unlooped and
The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: sharply before the mirror and saying to a tragic reflection: "Money,
money, money!" When she was alone her poverty was like a huge
dream-mountain on which her feet were fast rooted--aching with the ache of
the size of the thing--but if it came to definite action, with no time for
imaginings, her dream-mountain dwindled into a beastly "hold-your-nose"
affair, to be passed as quickly as possible, with anger and a strong sense
of superiority.
The landlady bounced out of the room, banging the door, so that it shook
and rattled as though it had listened to the conversation and fully
sympathised with the old hag.
Squatting on her heels, Viola opened the letter. It was from Casimir:
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: When Rabourdin left the house at eight o'clock, the porter gave him
the satirical cards suggested by Bixiou. Nevertheless, he went to the
ministry, where he found Sebastien waiting near the door to entreat
him not to enter any of the bureaus, because an infamous caricature of
him was making the round of the offices.
"If you wish to soften the pain of my downfall," he said to the lad,
"bring me that drawing; I am now taking my resignation to Ernest de la
Briere myself, that it may not be altered or distorted while passing
through the routine channels. I have my own reasons for wishing to see
that caricature."
When Rabourdin came back to the courtyard, after making sure that his
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