| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: would have thought "peculiar" were now in a position to be
critical about their visiting-lists; she had discussed the perils
of divorce with her rector, and had felt thankful at times that
Lily was still unmarried; but the idea that any scandal could
attach to a young girl's name, above all that it could be lightly
coupled with that of a married man, was so new to her that she
was as much aghast as if she had been accused of leaving her
carpets down all summer, or of violating any of the other
cardinal laws of housekeeping.
Miss Stepney, when her first fright had subsided, began to feel
the superiority that greater breadth of mind confers. It was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: the ocean from a single glance; he could see landscapes on its
surface; he hovered above the face of the waters, like an angel coming
down from heaven. When the joyous, mischievous white mists cast their
gossamer before him, like a veil before the face of a bride, he
followed their undulations and caprices with the joy of a lover. His
thought, married with that grand expression of the divine thought,
consoled him in his solitude, and the thousand outlooks of his soul
peopled its desert with glorious fantasies. He ended at last by
divining in the motions of the sea its close communion with the
celestial system; he perceived nature in its harmonious whole, from
the blade of grass to the wandering stars which seek, like seeds
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: and the weak secure. . .and the peace preserved. . . .
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days.
Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days. . .
nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps
in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
In your hands, my fellow citizens. . .more than mine. . .will rest the
final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded,
each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony
to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered
the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again. . .
not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need. . .not as a call to battle. . .
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