| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: found an excellent investment for a friend's money. You have
preferred essential kindness to an empty scruple; and now you are
ashamed of it! You have made your friend happy; and now you mourn
as the dove! Come, cheer up. I know it is depressing to have done
exactly right; but you need not make a practice of it. Forgive
yourself this virtue; come now, look me in the face and smile!'
He did look at her. When a man has been embraced by a woman, he
sees her in a glamour; and at such a time, in the baffling glimmer
of the stars, she will look wildly well. The hair is touched with
light; the eyes are constellations; the face sketched in shadows - a
sketch, you might say, by passion. Otto became consoled for his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: note from Florine, brought by her maid, which an invincible sleepiness
prevented him from reading at that moment. He fell asleep, dreaming of
a gentle love that his life had so far lacked. Some hours later he
opened the note, and found in it important news, which neither
Rastignac nor de Marsay had allowed to transpire. The indiscretion of
a member of the government had revealed to the actress the coming
dissolution of the Chamber after the present session. Raoul instantly
went to Florine's house and sent for Blondet. In the actress's
boudoir, with their feet on the fender, Emile and Raoul analyzed the
political situation of France in 1834. On which side lay the best
chance of fortune? They reviewed all parties and all shades of party,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: "I know. You'll have to tell her--and make your peace with her."
She leant back against the bookcases under the window.
"We've had some good times, Master;" she said, with a sigh in her
voice.
And then for a long time we stared at one another in silence.
"We haven't much time left," she said.
"Shall we bolt?" I said.
"And leave all this?" she asked, with her eyes going round the room.
"And that?" And her head indicated Westminster. "No!"
I said no more of bolting.
"We've got to screw ourselves up to surrender," she said.
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