The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Koran: down leaves for my flocks, and for which I have other uses.'
Said He, 'Throw it down, O Moses!' and he threw it down, and behold!
it was a snake that moved about.
Said He, 'Take hold of it and fear not; we will restore it to its
first state.
'But press thy hand to thy side, it shall come forth white without
harm,-another sign! to show thee of our great signs!
'Go unto Pharaoh, verily, he is outrageous!'
Said he, 'My Lord! expand for me my breast; and make what I am
bidden easy to me; and loose the knot from my tongue, that they may
understand my speech; and make for me a minister from my people,-Aaron
 The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: road, up to the very time when the crown of success came to her
in the form of the secretaryship of the prosperous firm of T. A.
Buck, there was a minor but fixed ambition in her heart. That
same ambition is to be found deep down in the heart of every
woman whose morning costume is a tailor suit, whose newspaper
must be read in hurried snatches on the way downtown in crowded
train or car, and to whom nine A.M. spells "Business."
"In fifteen years," Emma McChesney used to say, "I've never
known what it is to loll in leisure. I've never had a chance to
luxuriate. Sunday? To a working woman, Sunday is for the
purpose of repairing the ravages of the other six days. By the
 Emma McChesney & Co. |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: quarters' rent; the landlord was talking of seizing the furniture.
Then, too, there was a perfect downpour of creditors; there was a
livery-stable man, a needlewoman, a ladies' tailor, a charcoal
dealer and others besides, who came every day and settled themselves
on a bench in the little hall. The charcoal dealer especially was a
dreadful fellow--he shouted on the staircase. But Nana's greatest
cause of distress was her little Louis, a child she had given birth
to when she was sixteen and now left in charge of a nurse in a
village in the neighborhood of Rambouillet. This woman was
clamoring for the sum of three hundred francs before she would
consent to give the little Louis back to her. Nana, since her last
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