| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: cups, the pyramids of fruit, the dazzling lights of the banquet,
the flushed scared faces, the hues of the cushions pressed by the
white arms of the women.
"My lord, your father is dying!" he said; and at those solemn
words, uttered in hollow tones, a veil of crape [sic] seemed to
be drawn over the wild mirth.
Don Juan rose to his feet with a gesture to his guests that might
be rendered by, "Excuse me; this kind of thing does not happen
every day."
Does it so seldom happen that a father's death surprises youth in
the full-blown splendor of life, in the midst of the mad riot of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: couple of blocks. When he stopped again he saw a man coming
toward him, and placed himself in his path.
"Please, sir," he began, in the usual formula, "will you give me
the price of a lodging? I've had a broken arm, and I can't work,
and I've not a cent in my pocket. I'm an honest working-man,
sir, and I never begged before! It's not my fault, sir--"
Jurgis usually went on until he was interrupted, but this man did
not interrupt, and so at last he came to a breathless stop. The
other had halted, and Jurgis suddenly noticed that he stood a
little unsteadily. "Whuzzat you say?" he queried suddenly, in a
thick voice.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: myself off for a series of walks, and acquired a considerable
knowledge of the scenery and topography of the Potteries.
It puzzled my aunt that I did not go westward, where it was country-
side and often quite pretty, with hedgerows and fields and copses
and flowers. But always I went eastward, where in a long valley
industrialism smokes and sprawls. That was the stuff to which I
turned by nature, to the human effort, and the accumulation and jar
of men's activities. And in such a country as that valley social
and economic relations were simple and manifest. Instead of the
limitless confusion of London's population, in which no man can
trace any but the most slender correlation between rich and poor, in
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