| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: with or without tallow candles in them, and our two pipes with some
tobacco in a pouch or strewn abroad, also the little piles of cigar-
ash left there by our visitors or ourselves.
A pair of calico curtains hung from the brass window rods, and on each
side of the window was a small bookcase in cherry-wood, such as every
one knows who has stared into the shop windows of the Quartier Latin,
and in which we kept the few books necessary for our studies.
The ink in the inkstand was always in the state of lava congealed in
the crater of a volcano. May not any inkstand nowadays become a
Vesuvius? The pens, all twisted, served to clean the stems of our
pipes; and, in opposition to all the laws of credit, paper was even
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: The Duke of St. Austrey, who sat at his hostess's
right, was naturally the chief figure of the evening. But
if the Countess Olenska was less conspicuous than had
been hoped, the Duke was almost invisible. Being a
well-bred man he had not (like another recent ducal
visitor) come to the dinner in a shooting-jacket; but his
evening clothes were so shabby and baggy, and he
wore them with such an air of their being homespun,
that (with his stooping way of sitting, and the vast
beard spreading over his shirt-front) he hardly gave the
appearance of being in dinner attire. He was short,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: in the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do
this, and what kind of dwelling to make - whether I should make me
a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth; and, in short, I
resolved upon both; the manner and description of which, it may not
be improper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my settlement,
because it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea, and I
believed it would not be wholesome, and more particularly because
there was no fresh water near it; so I resolved to find a more
healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would he
Robinson Crusoe |
