| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: blow at the constrained and unnatural attitude of our
Society. At present we are not a united body, but a loose
gathering of individuals, whose inherent attraction is
allowed to condense them into little knots and coteries. Our
last snowball riot read us a plain lesson on our condition.
There was no party spirit - no unity of interests. A few,
who were mischievously inclined, marched off to the College
of Surgeons in a pretentious file; but even before they
reached their destination the feeble inspiration had died out
in many, and their numbers were sadly thinned. Some followed
strange gods in the direction of Drummond Street, and others
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: Chene et le Roseau' into an elixir-- Come, Gubetta, my old
accomplice," he continued, seizing Bixiou round the waist, "you want
money; well, I can borrow three thousand francs from my friend Cerizet
instead of two; 'Let us be friends, Cinna!' hand over your colossal
cabbages,--made to trick the public like a gardener's catalogue. If I
refused you it was because it is pretty hard on a man who can only do
his poor little business by turning over his money, to have to keep
your Ravenouillet notes in the drawer of his desk. Hard, hard, very
hard!"
"What discount do you want?" asked Bixiou.
"Next to nothing," returned Vauvinet. "It will cost you a miserable
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: They never did anybody any harm, or could if they tried; and their
only fault is, that they do no good - any more than some thousands
of their betters. But what with ducks, and what with pike, and
what with sticklebacks, and what with water-beetles, and what with
naughty boys, they are "sae sair hadden doun," as the Scotsmen say,
that it is a wonder how they live; and some folks can't help
hoping, with good Bishop Butler, that they may have another chance,
to make things fair and even, somewhere, somewhen, somehow.
Meanwhile, do you learn your lessons, and thank God that you have
plenty of cold water to wash in; and wash in it too, like a true
Englishman. And then, if my story is not true, something better
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