| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: spirit of man. Desplein had no doubts; he was positive. His bold
and unqualified atheism was like that of many scientific men, the
best men in the world, but invincible atheists--atheists such as
religious people declare to be impossible. This opinion could
scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed from his
youth to dissect the creature above all others--before, during,
and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever
finding the individual soul, which is indispensable to religious
theory. When he detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and
a centre for aerating the blood--the first two so perfectly
complementary that in the latter years of his life he came to a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: steel.
"What have I done to you?" he said, in his prostrate helplessness, and
he breathed hard like a stag at the water's edge. "What do you want of
me?"
"Look!" cried Melmoth.
Castanier looked at the stage. The scene had been changed. The play
seemed to be over, and Castanier beheld himself stepping from the
carriage with Aquilina; but as he entered the courtyard of the house
on the Rue Richer, the scene again was suddenly changed, and he saw
his own house. Jenny was chatting by the fire in her mistress' room
with a subaltern officer of a line regiment then stationed at Paris.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: particular occasion because he happened to be surrounded by
secretaries and others interested in this cause. That this is not
the case is further indicated by the fact that since that time he
has on two separate occasions attended the commencement exercises
of the Nanking University, on one of which he addressed the
students as follows:
"This is the second time I have attended the commencement
exercises of your school. I appreciate the good order I find
here. I rejoice at the evidences I see of your knowledge of the
proprieties, the depth of your learning, and the character of the
students of this institution. I am deeply grateful to the
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