| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: finger-ends, more particularly its scandalous chronicle, embellished
by added waggeries of his own. He sprang like a clown upon everybody's
back, only to do his utmost to leave the executioner's brand upon
every pair of shoulders.
The first cravings of gluttony satisfied, our neighbors reached the
stage at which we also had arrived, to wit, the dessert; and, as we
made no sign, they believed that they were alone. Thanks to the
champagne, the talk grew confidential as they dallied with the dessert
amid the cigar smoke. Yet through it all you felt the influence of the
icy esprit that leaves the most spontaneous feeling frost-bound and
stiff, that checks the most generous inspirations, and gives a sharp
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: ordinary dress of the time, was standing on the threshold of the shop
--which stood between Saint Roch and the Rue des Frondeurs--when he
saw that the Rue Saint Honore was filled with a crowd and he could not
go out.
"What is the matter?" he asked Madame Ragon.
"Nothing," she said; "it is only the tumbril cart and the executioner
going to the Place Louis XV. Ah! we used to see it often enough last
year; but to-day, four days after the anniversary of the twenty-first
of January, one does not feel sorry to see the ghastly procession."
"Why not?" asked the abbe. "That is not said like a Christian."
"Eh! but it is the execution of Robespierre's accomplices. They
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: But think you, lords, that Clifford fled with them?
WARWICK.
No, 't is impossible he should escape;
For, though before his face I speak the words,
Your brother Richard mark'd him for the grave,
And whereso'er he is he's surely dead.
[Clifford groans and dies.]
EDWARD.
Whose soul is that which takes her heavy leave?
RICHARD.
A deadly groan, like life and death's departing.
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