| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: meats and bottles. I believe I may say I am not devoid of
greatness of soul; for I did not recoil from this infamous burden.
I disposed it, Heaven knows how, so as to be mildly portable, and
then proceeded to steer Modestine through the village. She tried,
as was indeed her invariable habit, to enter every house and every
courtyard in the whole length; and, encumbered as I was, without a
hand to help myself, no words can render an idea of my
difficulties. A priest, with six or seven others, was examining a
church in process of repair, and he and his acolytes laughed loudly
as they saw my plight.
I remembered having laughed myself when I had seen good men
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: twisted Pierrette's arm, she tried to force the fingers open; unable
to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. At last, in her madness,
she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to conquer the girl by pain.
Pierrette defied her still, with that same terrible glance of
innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a pitch that it
became blind fury. She seized Pierrette's arm and struck the closed
fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the
mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel.
"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, "they are murdering me!"
"Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of
night."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: "'Stop, sir, I command you,' said Lady Bothwell. 'Who are you
that, at such a place and time, come to recall these horrible
recollections? I insist upon knowing.'
"'I am one who intends Lady Bothwell no injury, but, on the
contrary, to offer her the means of doing a deed of Christian
charity, which the world would wonder at, and which Heaven would
reward; but I find her in no temper for such a sacrifice as I was
prepared to ask.'
"'Speak out, sir; what is your meaning?' said Lady Bothwell.
"'The wretch that has wronged you so deeply,' rejoined the
stranger, 'is now on his death-bed. His days have been days of
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