| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: the prize by violence, and therefore bought forty
tickets, not omitting, however, to divide them
between the even and odd numbers, that I might not
miss the lucky class. Many conclusions did I form,
and many experiments did I try, to determine from
which of those tickets I might most reasonably
expect riches. At last, being unable to satisfy myself
by any modes of reasoning, I wrote the numbers
upon dice, and allotted five hours every day to the
amusement of throwing them in a garret; and,
examining the event by an exact register, found, on
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: curiosity -! Only doesn't it sometimes come to you as time goes on
that your curiosity isn't being particularly repaid?"
May Bartram had a pause. "Do you ask that, by any chance, because
you feel at all that yours isn't? I mean because you have to wait
so long."
Oh he understood what she meant! "For the thing to happen that
never does happen? For the Beast to jump out? No, I'm just where
I was about it. It isn't a matter as to which I can CHOOSE, I can
decide for a change. It isn't one as to which there CAN be a
change. It's in the lap of the gods. One's in the hands of one's
law--there one is. As to the form the law will take, the way it
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: than a few words. D'Artagnan therefore followed Mme. Bonacieux
moved by a double sentiment--love and curiosity. All the way,
and in proportion as the corridors became more deserted,
D'Artagnan wished to stop the young woman, seize her and gaze
upon her, were it only for a minute; but quick as a bird she
glided between his hands, and when he wished to speak to her, her
finger placed upon her mouth, with a little imperative gesture
full of grace, reminded him that he was under the command of a
power which he must blindly obey, and which forbade him even to
make the slightest complaint. At length, after winding about for
a minute or two, Mme. Bonacieux opened the door of a closet,
The Three Musketeers |
