| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: before Religion, and the heavy weight of the stone had sealed the
mouth of the grave in which he had laid the one feeling of
remorse that sometimes flitted through his soul in moments of
physical weariness.
He had drawn up a list of the wealth heaped up by the old
merchant in the East, and he became a miser: had he not to
provide for a second lifetime? His views of life were the more
profound and penetrating; he grasped its significance, as a
whole, the better, because he saw it across a grave. All men, all
things, he analyzed once and for all; he summed up the Past,
represented by its records; the Present in the law, its
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: and Valentin stopped in front of the dusky little box in which Mademoiselle
Nioche had bestowed herself, laying his hand on the doorknob.
"Oh, come, are you going back there?" asked Newman.
"Mon Dieu, oui," said Valentin.
"Haven't you another place?"
"Yes, I have my usual place, in the stalls."
"You had better go and occupy it, then."
"I see her very well from there, too, added Valentin, serenely,
"and to-night she is worth seeing. But," he added in a moment,
"I have a particular reason for going back just now."
"Oh, I give you up," said Newman. "You are infatuated!"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Thy brother being carelessly encamp'd,
His soldiers lurking in the towns about,
And but attended by a simple guard,
We may surprise and take him at our pleasure?
Our scouts have found the adventure very easy;
That as Ulysses and stout Diomede
With sleight and manhood stole to Rhesus' tents,
And brought from thence the Thracian fatal steeds,
So we, well cover'd with the night's black mantle,
At unawares may beat down Edward's guard,
And seize himself,--I say not slaughter him,
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