| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: he was well trained besides -- he would trot
behind his master like a dog, and actually knew
his voice! Kazbich never used to tether him
either -- just the very horse for a robber! . . .
"On that evening Kazbich was more sullen
than ever, and I noticed that he was wearing a
coat of mail under his tunic. 'He hasn't got
that coat of mail on for nothing,' I thought.
'He has some plot in his head, I'll be bound!'
"It grew oppressively hot in the hut, and I
went out into the air to cool myself. Night had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: remarkable for her knowledge of literature. She discussed with perfect
fearlessness the most difficult questions, thanks to her daily and
nightly reading, pursued with an intrepidity worthy of the highest
praise. D'Arthez, amazed, and incapable of suspecting that Diane
d'Uxelles merely repeated at night that which she read in the morning
(as some writers do), regarded her as a most superior woman. These
conversations, however, led away from Diane's object, and she tried to
get back to the region of confidences from which d'Arthez had
prudently retired after her coquettish rebuff; but it was not as easy
as she expected to bring back a man of his nature who had once been
startled away.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: but the honour of not having done aught conspicuously foul;
the honour of the inert: that was what remained to you. We
are not all expected to be Damiens; a man may conceive his
duty more narrowly, he may love his comforts better; and none
will cast a stone at him for that. But will a gentleman of
your reverend profession allow me an example from the fields
of gallantry? When two gentlemen compete for the favour of a
lady, and the one succeeds and the other is rejected, and (as
will sometimes happen) matter damaging to the successful
rival's credit reaches the ear of the defeated, it is held by
plain men of no pretensions that his mouth is, in the
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