| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: quiet until they ceased to speak, when he groped his way to the
door, and peeping through the air-holes, tried to make out what
kind of men they were, to whom he had been listening.
The one who condemned the civil power in such strong terms, was a
serjeant--engaged just then, as the streaming ribands in his cap
announced, on the recruiting service. He stood leaning sideways
against a pillar nearly opposite the door, and as he growled to
himself, drew figures on the pavement with his cane. The other
man had his back towards the dungeon, and Barnaby could only see
his form. To judge from that, he was a gallant, manly, handsome
fellow, but he had lost his left arm. It had been taken off
 Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: Ezekiel 15: 6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so do I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 15: 7 And I will set My face against them; out of the fire are they come forth, and the fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.
Ezekiel 15: 8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted treacherously, saith the Lord GOD.'
Ezekiel 16: 1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying:
Ezekiel 16: 2 'Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
Ezekiel 16: 3 and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem: Thine origin and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was thy father, and thy mother was a Hittite.
Ezekiel 16: 4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water for cleansing; thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
Ezekiel 16: 5 No eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field in the loathsomeness of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
Ezekiel 16: 6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee wallowing in thy blood, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live;
Ezekiel 16: 7 I cause thee to increase, even as the growth of the field. And thou didst increase and grow up, and thou camest to excellent beauty: thy breasts were fashioned, and thy hair was grown;  The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: the pride of her hospitality, anxiously watched the door or
stealthily poked the fire. I used to call it the music-room, for
we had anticipated Bayreuth. The very gates of the kingdom of
light seemed to open and the horizon of thought to flash with the
beauty of a sunrise at sea.
In the consideration of ways and means, the sittings of our little
board, we were always conscious of the creak of Mrs. Saltram's
shoes. She hovered, she interrupted, she almost presided, the
state of affairs being mostly such as to supply her with every
incentive for enquiring what was to be done next. It was the
pressing pursuit of this knowledge that, in concatenations of
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