| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: The result was a declaration of war, and the very next day Glinda marched
upon the Emerald City with pennants flying and bands playing,
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and a forest of shining spears, sparkling brightly beneath the sun's rays.
But when it came to the walls this brave assembly made a sudden halt; for
Jinjur had closed and barred every gateway, and the walls of the Emerald
City were builded high and thick with many blocks of green marble. Finding
her advance thus baffled, Glinda bent her brows in deep thought, while the
Woggle-Bug said, in his most positive tone:
"We must lay siege to the city, and starve it into submission. It is the
only thing we can do."
 The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: at least a dozen blunders in worldly wisdom which had, unaccountably,
slipped into this page of the glorious book of his life.
When Madame de Listomere saw her husband ushering in Eugene she could
not help blushing. The young baron saw that sudden color. If the most
humble-minded man retains in the depths of his soul a certain conceit
of which he never rids himself, any more than a woman ever rids
herself of coquetry, who shall blame Eugene if he did say softly in
his own mind: "What! that fortress, too?" So thinking, he posed in his
cravat. Young men may not be grasping but they like to get a new coin
in their collection.
Monsieur de Listomere seized the "Gazette de France," which he saw on
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: "What, then," said the Man in a Hurry, eagerly, "is the time of
day?"
"The question is remanded to the Party Over There for a new
answer," replied the Grave Person, returning his watch to his
pocket and moving away with great dignity.
He was a Judge of an Appellate Court.
The Poetess of Reform
ONE pleasant day in the latter part of eternity, as the Shades of
all the great writers were reposing upon beds of asphodel and moly
in the Elysian fields, each happy in hearing from the lips of the
others nothing but copious quotation from his own works (for so
 Fantastic Fables |