| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: to have the irons riveted on his limbs.
"Dear me! I cannot laugh any more! . . ." said Aquilina. "You are very
solemn, dear boy; what can be the matter? The gentleman has gone."
"A word with you, Castanier," said Melmoth when the piece was at an
end, and the attendant was fastening Mme. de la Garde's cloak.
The corridor was crowded, and escape impossible.
"Very well, what is it?"
"No human power can hinder you from taking Aquilina home, and going
next to Versailles, there to be arrested."
"How so?"
"Because you are in a hand that will never relax its grasp," returned
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: certainly make off with whatever corn or wine or cattle they found
outside. But even if they did get hold of the silver ore, it would be
little better to them than a heap of stones.[58] But how is an enemy
ever to march upon the mines in force? The nearest state, Megara, is
distant, I take it, a good deal over sixty miles;[59] and the next
closest, Thebes, a good deal nearer seventy.[60] Supposing then an
enemy to advance from some such point to attack the mines, he cannot
avoid passing Athens; and presuming his force to be small, we may
expect him to be annihilated by our cavalry and frontier police.[61] I
say, presuming his force to be small, since to march with anything
like a large force, and thereby leave his own territory denuded of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: didn't even mention Mrs. Saltram and the children. Late into the
night we smoked and talked; old shames and old rigours fell away
from us; I only let him see that I was conscious of what I owed
him. He was as mild as contrition and as copious as faith; he was
never so fine as on a shy return, and even better at forgiving than
at being forgiven. I dare say it was a smaller matter than that
famous night at Wimbledon, the night of the problematical sobriety
and of Miss Anvoy's initiation; but I was as much in it on this
occasion as I had been out of it then. At about 1.30 he was
sublime.
He never, in whatever situation, rose till all other risings were
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