| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: they came to recite their lessons, not one of them knew
his verses perfectly, but had to be prompted all along.
However, they worried through, and each got his reward
-- in small blue tickets, each with a passage of Scripture
on it; each blue ticket was pay for two verses of the
recitation. Ten blue tickets equalled a red one, and
could be exchanged for it; ten red tickets equalled a
yellow one; for ten yellow tickets the superintendent
gave a very plainly bound Bible (worth forty cents in
those easy times) to the pupil. How many of my
readers would have the industry and application to
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs:
In the mouth of the narrow spiral but a single warrior could
attack me at a time, so that I had little difficulty in holding
them all back for the brief moment that was necessary. Then,
backing slowly before them, I commenced the ascent of the spiral.
All the long way to the tower's top the guardsmen pressed me closely.
When one went down before my sword another scrambled over the dead man to
take his place; and thus, taking an awful toll with each few feet gained,
I came to the spacious glass-walled watchtower of Kadabra.
The Warlord of Mars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: with a flowered black design, lined with white silk; the furniture,
covered with the same material, had been renovated in the time of
Louis XIV. The floor, evidently modern, was laid in large squares of
white wood bordered with strips of oak. The ceiling, formed of many
oval panels, in each of which Van Huysum had carved a grotesque mask,
had been respected and allowed to keep the brown tones of the native
Dutch oak.
In the four corners of this parlor were truncated columns, supporting
candelabra exactly like those on the mantle-shelf; and a round table
stood in the middle of the room. Along the walls card-tables were
symmetrically placed. On two gilded consoles with marble slabs there
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