| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: Council of the State. Dr. Putnam, who had been attending Webster
in the jail, read to the Council a confession which he had
persuaded the prisoner to make. According to this statement
Webster had, on the Friday afternoon, struck Parkman on the head
with a heavy wooden stick in a wild moment of rage, induced by
the violent taunts and threats of his creditor. Appalled by his
deed, he had in panic locked himself in his room, and
proceeded with desperate haste to dismember the body; he had
placed it for that purpose in the sink in his back room, through
which was running a constant stream of water that carried away
the blood. Some portions of the body he had burnt in the
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: not interpret Madame Firmiani's agitation exactly in this way: pray
forgive him, all provincials are distrustful.
"Well, monsieur?" said Madame Firmiani, giving him one of those clear,
lucid glances in which we men can never see anything because they
question us too much.
"Well, madame," returned the old man, "do you know what some one came
to tell me in the depths of my province? That my nephew had ruined
himself for you, and that the poor fellow was living in a garret while
you were in silk and gold. Forgive my rustic sincerity; it may be
useful for you to know of these calumnies."
"Stop, monsieur," said Madame Firmiani, with an imperative gesture; "I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: hausted, as if she had been stranded there after a
storm and a shipwreck.
She opened her eyes after awhile; and listening
to the firm, leisurely footsteps going away with
their conquest, began to gather her skirts, staring
all the time before her. Suddenly she darted
through the open gate into the dark and deserted
street.
"Stop!" she shouted. "Don't go!"
And listening with an attentive poise of the head,
she could not tell whether it was the beat of the
To-morrow |
