| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: good-day. Harum-scarum, clodpole young lairds of the neighbourhood paid
him the compliment of a visit. Young Hay of Romanes rode down to call,
on his crop-eared pony; young Pringle of Drumanno came up on his bony
grey. Hay remained on the hospitable field, and must be carried to bed;
Pringle got somehow to his saddle about 3 A.M., and (as Archie stood
with the lamp on the upper doorstep) lurched, uttered a senseless view-
holloa, and vanished out of the small circle of illumination like a
wraith. Yet a minute or two longer the clatter of his break-neck flight
was audible, then it was cut off by the intervening steepness of the
hill; and again, a great while after, the renewed beating of phantom
horse-hoofs, far in the valley of the Hermiston, showed that the horse
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: make a point, in their own phrase, of studying European society,
and she had on this occasion collected several specimens of her
diversely born fellow mortals to serve, as it were, as textbooks.
When Winterbourne arrived, Daisy Miller was not there, but in a few
moments he saw her mother come in alone, very shyly and ruefully.
Mrs. Miller's hair above her exposed-looking temples was more frizzled
than ever. As she approached Mrs. Walker, Winterbourne also drew near.
"You see, I've come all alone," said poor Mrs. Miller.
"I'm so frightened; I don't know what to do. It's the first time
I've ever been to a party alone, especially in this country.
I wanted to bring Randolph or Eugenio, or someone, but Daisy just
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: haughtiness. I had been viewing my destination across the sagebrush for
so spun-out a time that (as constantly in Wyoming journeys) the emotion
of arrival had evaporated long before the event, and I welcomed
employment for my otherwise high-and-dry mind. Probably he meant the
railroad company; certainly something large had happened. Even as I
dismounted at the platform another hilarious cow-puncher came out of the
station, and, at once remarking, "They're going to leave us alone,"
sprang on his horse and galloped to the corrals down the line, where some
cattle were being loaded into a train. I went inside for my mail, and
here were four more cow-punchers playing with the agent. They had got a
letter away from him, and he wore his daily look of anxiety to appreciate
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