| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: His son, King Charles II., may well be said to have an aversion to
the place, for the reason just mentioned--namely, the treatment his
royal father met with there--and particularly that the rebel and
murderer of his father, Cromwell, afterwards possessed this palace,
and revelled here in the blood of the royal party, as he had done
in that of his sovereign. King Charles II. therefore chose
Windsor, and bestowed a vast sum in beautifying the castle there,
and which brought it to the perfection we see it in at this day--
some few alterations excepted, done in the time of King William.
King William (for King James is not to be named as to his choice of
retired palaces, his delight running quite another way)--I say,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: of the sea which separates Corsica from Provence is, in spite of human
science, an ocean which has made two nations.
Diard's mongrel position, which he himself made still more
questionable, brought him great troubles. Perhaps there is useful
instruction to be derived from the almost imperceptible connection of
acts which led to the finale of this history.
In the first place, the sneerers of Paris did not see without
malicious smiles and words the pictures with which the former
quartermaster adorned his handsome mansion. Works of art purchased the
night before were said to be spoils from Spain; and this accusation
was the revenge of those who were jealous of his present fortune.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Is it a lake?
Not a lake, though there are plenty round here; that is salt
water, not fresh. Look away to the right, and you see it through
the opening of the woods again and again: and now look above the
woods. You see a faint blue line, and gray and purple lumps like
clouds, which rest upon it far away. That, child, is the great
Atlantic Ocean, and those are islands in the far west. The water
which washes the bottom of the lawn was but a few months ago
pouring out of the Gulf of Mexico, between the Bahamas and
Florida, and swept away here as the great ocean river of warm
water which we call the Gulf Stream, bringing with it out of the
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