| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: calling wherever he had reason to believe there was likely to be a market
for any of his commodities.
"A fine haul, lieutenant," said the captain.
"Yes, indeed," said the lieutenant; "but what if the owner refuses
to part with it?"
"No fear; no fear," replied the captain. "As soon as ever the old rascal
finds that there are no more Arabs or Algerians for him to fleece,
he will be ready enough to transact a little business with us.
We will pay him by bills of acceptance on some of his old friends
in the Old World."
"But why should he want any payment?" inquired the lieutenant.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: should I find loose but that Indian lass, who had just unbound the
fellow you caught--"
"Ah! those two, I believe, were going to murder the old man in the
hammock, if we had not come in the nick of time. What have you
done with them?"
"Why, the Spaniard ran when he saw me, and got into a cabin; but
the woman, instead of running, came at me with a knife, and chased
me round the table like a very cat-a-mountain. So I ducked under
the old man's hammock, and out into the gallery; and when I thought
the coast was clear, back again I came, and stumbled over this. So
I just picked it up, and ran on deck with my tail between my legs,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: "How so?"
"Because you are in a hand that will never relax its grasp," returned
the Englishman.
Castanier longed for the power to utter some word that should blot him
out from among living men and hide him in the lowest depths of hell.
"Suppose that the Devil were to make a bid for your soul, would you
not give it to him now in exchange for the power of God? One single
word, and those five hundred thousand francs shall be back in the
Baron de Nucingen's safe; then you can tear up the letter of credit,
and all traces of your crime will be obliterated. Moreover, you would
have gold in torrents. You hardly believe in anything perhaps? Well,
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