| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: and manly tenderness. The confiding disposition of various classes
of women satisfied the needs of his self-love, and put some
material means into his hand. He needed it to live. It was there.
But if he could no longer make use of it, he ran the risk of
starving his ideals and his body . . . "THIS ACT OF MADNESS OR
DESPAIR."
"An impenetrable mystery" was sure "to hang for ever" as far as all
mankind was concerned. But what of that if he alone of all men
could never get rid of the cursed knowledge? And Comrade Ossipon's
knowledge was as precise as the newspaper man could make it - up to
the very threshold of the "MYSTERY DESTINED TO HANG FOR EVER. . .
The Secret Agent |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: total unconsciousness of the link between them. Whenever she
reached this stage in her reflexions she lifted a furtive glance to
the clock, whose loud staccato tick was becoming a part of her
inmost being.
The seed sown by these long hours of meditation germinated at
last in the secret wish to go to market some morning in Evelina's
stead. As this purpose rose to the surface of Ann Eliza's thoughts
she shrank back shyly from its contemplation. A plan so steeped in
duplicity had never before taken shape in her crystalline soul.
How was it possible for her to consider such a step? And, besides,
(she did not possess sufficient logic to mark the downward trend of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: "Gentleman, might I ask you to keep quiet? I am writing a little
treatise on moral philosophy, and I am just at the heart of it."
Fleury [interrupting]. "What are you saying about it, Monsieur
Phellion?"
Phellion [reading]. "Question.--What is the soul of man?
"Answer.--A spiritual substance which thinks and reasons."
Thuillier. "Spiritual substance! you might as well talk about
immaterial stone."
Poiret. "Don't interrupt; let him go on."
Phellion [continuing]. "Quest.--Whence comes the soul?
"Ans.--From God, who created it of a nature one and indivisible; the
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