| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: pause, in a low voice, "but I never either did it myself, or took any
of the money obtained by it. I was a refractory, I evaded the
conscription, that was all. I helped my comrades, I kept watch; I was
sentinel and brought up the rear-guard; but I never shed any man's
blood except in self-defence. Ah! I told all to Monsieur Bonnet and my
lawyer, and the judges knew well enough that I was no murderer. But,
all the same, I am a great criminal; nothing that I ever did was
morally right. However, before I got there, as I was saying, two of my
comrades told of me as a man able to do great things. At the galleys,
madame, nothing is so valuable as that reputation, not even money. In
that republic of misery murder is a passport to tranquillity. I did
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: the day had been but an illusion of a season that had gone. This
was not summer, but, in the quaint old phrase, Indian summer, and
its end would be as though the necromancer had waved his wand.
To Newmark, sitting at his desk, reported Captain Floyd of the steam
barge NORTH STAR.
"All loaded by noon, sir," he said.
Newmark looked up in surprise.
"Well, why do you tell me?" he inquired.
"I want your orders."
"My orders? Why?"
"This is a bad time of year," explained Captain Floyd, "and the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: doesn't need to be changed at all. But Betsy and Doctor can only be trained in
a few ways, and never to really change their nature.
"Setters have hunted rabbits always, kittens have preyed upon birds, and
donkeys, as a rule, have stood still whenever they wanted to."
"But why, I wonder, were they made so?"
"You nor I nor nohodv knows, Tattine, but isn't it fine that for some reason
we are made differently? If we will only be reasonable and try hard enough and
in the right way, we can overcome anything."
"It's a little like a sermon, Grandma Luty."
"It's a little bit of a one then, for it's over, but you go this minute and
give Betsy and Doctor a good hard hug, and tell them you forgive them."
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