| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: the first wound to him that should fall into his hands.
As I was the nearest, and by consequence the most exposed, an order
was immediately issued out for apprehending me, it being thought a
good expedient to seize me, and force me to build a citadel, into
which they might retreat if they should happen to meet with a
defeat. The viceroy wrote to me to desire that I would come to him,
he having, as he said, an affair of the highest importance to
communicate.
The frequent assemblies which the viceroy held had already been much
talked of; and I had received advice that he was ready for a revolt,
and that my death was to be the first signal of an open war.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: but use and wont had brought Castanier to the point where clear-
sightedness is no longer possible for love.
"I have taken a box at the Gymnase this evening," he said; "let us
have dinner early, and then we need not dine in a hurry."
"Go and take Jenny. I am tired of plays. I do not know what is the
matter with me this evening; I would rather stay here by the fire."
"Come, all the same though, Naqui; I shall not be here to bore you
much longer. Yes, Quiqui, I am going to start to-night, and it will be
some time before I come back again. I am leaving everything in your
charge. Will you keep your heart for me too?"
"Neither my heart nor anything else," she said; "but when you come
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: impulsiveness would ruin everything."
"Do you mean it? For God's sake! don't lie to me. If there's no
hope for me, don't say there is." The prisoner's voice shook and
his hands trembled. He was only the husk of the man he had been,
but it did Bucky's heart good to see that the germ of life was
still in him. Back in Arizona, on the Rocking Chair Ranch, with
the free winds of the plains beating on his face, he would pick
up again the old strands of his broken life, would again learn to
love the lowing of cattle and the early morning call of the
hooter to his mate.
"I mean it. As sure as I stand here I'll get you out, or, if I
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