| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: anxious period which we have commemorated, that a young gentleman
of quality, well mounted and armed, and accompanied by two
servants, one of whom led a sumpter horse, rode slowly up one of
those steep passes, by which the Highlands are accessible from
the Lowlands of Perthshire. [The beautiful pass of Leny, near
Callander, in Monteith, would, in some respects, answer this
description.] Their course had lain for some time along the banks
of a lake, whose deep waters reflected the crimson beams of the
western sun. The broken path which they pursued with some
difficulty, was in some places shaded by ancient birches and oak-
trees, and in others overhung by fragments of huge rock.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: striking straight across the underbrush; scrambling down a steep
bank, pushing through a thicket of alders, and coming out suddenly,
face to face with a beautiful, strange brook. It reminds you, of
course, of some old friend. It is a little like the Beaverkill, or
the Ausable, or the Gale River. And yet it is different. Every
stream has its own character and disposition. Your new acquaintance
invites you to a day of discoveries. If the water is high, you will
follow it down, and have easy fishing. If the water is low, you
will go upstream, and fish "fine and far-off." Every turn in the
avenue which the little river has made for you opens up a new view,--
a rocky gorge where the deep pools are divided by white-footed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: "Several young gentlemen."
"Moths."
"Oh no, butterflies."
"They must keep away now."
"Are you Rhadamanthus?"
"And Charon, too. I would have you row in the same boat with me."
"Now you are fishing."
"Won't you compliment me. Did I ever look better?"
His evening costume *was* becoming, but he looked pale, and weary,
and disturbed. But if we were engaged for a tournament, as his
behavior indicated, I must do my best at telling. So I told him
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