| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: young and beautiful as Antinous, with its dark hair and brilliant
eyes and red lips, a head that made horrible efforts, but could
not move the dead, wasted body.
An old servitor cried, "A miracle! a miracle!" and all the
Spaniards echoed, "A miracle! a miracle!"
Dona Elvira, too pious to attribute this to magic, sent for the
Abbot of San-Lucar; and the Prior beholding the miracle with his
own eyes, being a clever man, and withal an Abbot desirous of
augmenting his revenues, determined to turn the occasion to
profit. He immediately gave out that Don Juan would certainly be
canonized; he appointed a day for the celebration of the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: These reports at last assumed such a definite form that Friend
Mitchenor brought them to the notice of his family.
"I met Josiah Comly in the road," said he, one day at dinner.
"He's just come from Philadelphia, and brings bad news of Richard
Hilton. He's taken to drink, and is spending in wickedness the
money his father left him. His friends have a great concern about
him, but it seems he's not to be reclaimed."
Abigail looked imploringly at her husband, but he either
disregarded or failed to understand her look. Asenath, who had
grown very pale, steadily met her father's gaze, and said, in a
tone which he had never yet heard from her lips--
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: engaged in taking the testimony of several witnesses, and in writing
down, no doubt, the "proces-verbal." He recognized the landlord, his
wife, the two boatmen, and the servant of the Red Inn. The surgical
instrument which the murderer had used--
[Here Monsieur Taillefer coughed, drew out his handkerchief to blow
his nose, and wiped his forehead. These perfectly natural motions were
noticed by me only; the other guests sat with their eyes fixed on
Monsieur Hermann, to whom they were listening with a sort of avidity.
The purveyor leaned his elbow on the table, put his head into his
right hand and gazed fixedly at Hermann. From that moment he showed no
other sign of emotion or interest, but his face remained passive and
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