| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap
jingled as he strode.
"The pipe," said he.
"It is farther on," said I; "but observe the white web-work
which gleams from these cavern walls."
He turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with two filmy
orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication.
"Nitre?" he asked, at length.
"Nitre," I replied. "How long have you had that cough?"
"Ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! ugh!
ugh!--ugh! ugh! ugh!"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: I. PARDONNEZ-MOI, said the landlord.
I cannot take a fitter opportunity to observe, once for all, that
TANT PIS and TANT MIEUX, being two of the great hinges in French
conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the
use of them, before he gets to Paris.
A prompt French marquis at our ambassador's table demanded of Mr.
H-, if he was H- the poet? No, said Mr. H-, mildly. - TANT PIS,
replied the marquis.
It is H- the historian, said another, - TANT MIEUX, said the
marquis. And Mr. H-, who is a man of an excellent heart, return'd
thanks for both.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: "I feel like a book of verse and a hammock, after all that has happened," Lute
said, as they rode into camp.
It was a summer camp of city-tired people, pitched in a grove of towering
redwoods through whose lofty boughs the sunshine trickled down, broken and
subdued to soft light and cool shadow. Apart from the main camp were the
kitchen and the servants' tents; and midway between was the great dining hall,
walled by the living redwood columns, where fresh whispers of air were always
to be found, and where no canopy was needed to keep the sun away.
"Poor Dolly, she is really sick," Lute said that evening, when they had
returned from a last look at the mare. "But you weren't hurt, Chris, and
that's enough for one small woman to be thankful for. I thought I knew, but I
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