| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: their little comet, they knew, was far safer where it was;
far better out of the reach of an attraction which, by affecting
their path, might have annihilated their best hopes.
The distances of several of the brightest of the fixed stars have
been estimated. Amongst others, Vega in the constellation Lyra
is 100 millions of millions of miles away; Sirius in Canis Major,
123 millions of millions; the Pole-star, 282 millions of millions;
and Capella, 340 millions of millions of miles, a figure represented
by no less than fifteen digits.
The hard numerical statement of these enormous figures, however,
fails altogether in any adequate way to convey a due impression
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: seemed astonishing that he should have succeeded in moving
several which he had already arranged for the foundation of his
edifice. He was struggling to move a fragment of great size when
the two young men came up, and was so intent upon executing his
purpose, that he did not perceive them till they were close upon
him. In straining and heaving at the stone, in order to place it
according to his wish, he displayed a degree of strength which
seemed utterly inconsistent with his size and apparent deformity.
Indeed, to judge from the difficulties he had already surmounted,
he must have been of Herculean powers; for some of the stones he
had succeeded in raising apparently required two men's strength
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: woman preserved a decently stolid exterior.
Madame wrung her hands. "Ten minutes! Oh!" It was almost a moan.
"Which way did he go?"
"The assignation is for nine o'clock in the Bois de Boulogne,"
Aline informed her. "Could we follow? Could we prevail if we did?"
"Ah, my God! The question is should we come in time? At nine
o'clock! And it wants but little more than a quarter of an hour.
Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" Madame clasped and unclasped her hands in
anguish. "Do you know, at least, where in the Bois they are to meet?"
"No - only that it is in the Bois."
"In the Bois!" Madame was flung into a frenzy. "The Bois is nearly
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