| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: the larynx.
"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having
wanted for anything, had never even heard this problem in the
rule of three: A young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is
to X.--These gilded idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt?
Why did you involve yourself in such onerous obligations?' They
remind me of the princess who, on hearing that the people lacked
bread, said, 'Why do not they buy cakes?' I should like to see
one of these rich men, who complain that I charge too much for an
operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone in Paris without
a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to work with
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: put in, delighted to have picked up Canquoelle's address. "Before the
Revolution," he went on, "I had for my mistress a woman who had
previously been kept by the gentleman-in-waiting, as they then called
the executioner. One evening at the play she pricked herself with a
pin, and cried out--a customary ejaculation in those days--'Ah!
Bourreau!' on which her neighbor asked her if this were a
reminiscence?--Well, my dear Peyrade, she cast off her man for that
speech.
"I suppose you have no wish to expose yourself to such a slap in the
face.--Madame du Val-Noble is a woman for gentlemen. I saw her once at
the opera, and thought her very handsome.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: help them up the trees out of the lions' way."
And she turned over the next five hundred years. And in that they
were fewer still, and stronger, and fiercer; but their feet had
changed shape very oddly, for they laid hold of the branches with
their great toes, as if they had been thumbs, just as a Hindoo
tailor uses his toes to thread his needle.
The children were very much surprised, and asked the fairy whether
that was her doing.
"Yes, and no," she said, smiling. "It was only those who could use
their feet as well as their hands who could get a good living: or,
indeed, get married; so that they got the best of everything, and
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