| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I
hope will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance
in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year
old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether
stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.
I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of
the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed,
twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one
fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep,
 A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: be forgotten and forgiven but the sins of his mother or
his grandfather in not being of noble blood, no matter
howsoever wickedly attained, he might never overcome
or live down.
Torn by conflicting emotions the poor girl dragged
herself to her own apartment and there upon a restless,
sleepless couch, beset by wild, impossible hopes, and
vain, torturing regrets, she fought out the long, bitter
night; until toward morning she solved the problem
of her misery in the only way that seemed possible to
her poor, tired, bleeding, little heart. When the rising
 The Outlaw of Torn |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: prosecutor will not find grounds for a prosecution in the case; still,
we will report it to the Prefecture; it may, perhaps, be of some use.
"Monsieur," he went on to the medical officer, "in this room you will
see a dead man. I do not believe that he died from natural causes; you
will be good enough to make a post-mortem in the presence of the Chief
of the Police, who will come at my request. Try to discover some
traces of poison. You will, in a few minutes, have the opinion of
Monsieur Desplein and Monsieur Bianchon, for whom I have sent to
examine the daughter of my best friend; she is in a worse plight than
he, though he is dead."
"I have no need of those gentlemen's assistance in the exercise of my
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