| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: With a sound of murmuring voices and shuffling feet.
And one, from his high bright window looking down
On luminous chasms that cleft the basalt town,
Hearing a sea-like murmur rise,
Desired to leave his dream, descend from the tower,
And drown in waves of shouts and laughter and cries.
V.
The snow floats down upon us, mingled with rain . . .
It eddies around pale lilac lamps, and falls
Down golden-windowed walls.
We were all born of flesh, in a flare of pain,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: "Sister Marthe," he said, "the messenger will say Fiat Voluntas in
answer to the word Hosanna."
"There is some one on the stairs!" cried the other nun, opening a
hiding-place contrived in the roof.
This time it was easy to hear, amid the deepest silence, a sound
echoing up the staircase; it was a man's tread on the steps covered
with dried lumps of mud. With some difficulty the priest slipped into
a kind of cupboard, and the nun flung some clothes over him.
"You can shut the door, Sister Agathe," he said in a muffled voice.
He was scarcely hidden before three raps sounded on the door. The holy
women looked into each other's eyes for counsel, and dared not say a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: an opportunity."
"In short you were afraid of it."
Again she hesitated and though it may have been only my fancy I
thought she considerably reddened. At all events she laughed out.
Then "I was afraid of it!" she very honestly answered.
"But doesn't he know? Has he given no sign?"
"Every sign in life--he came straight back to her. He did
everything to get her to listen to him, but she hasn't the smallest
idea of it."
"Has he seen her as she is now?" I presently and just a trifle
awkwardly enquired.
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