| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: lay farther on down the river that I had been following
when taken prisoner.
As I turned to make for the mesa's rim the sounds of
battle came plainly to my ears--the hoarse shouts of
men mingled with the half-beastly roars and growls of
the brute-folk.
Did I take advantage of my opportunity?
I did not. Instead, lured by the din of strife and by the
desire to deliver a stroke, however feeble, against hated
Hooja, I wheeled and ran directly toward the village.
When I reached the edge of the plateau such a scene
 Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: Maybe it's because you are so unlike my kind of girl that--that
things are as they are with me. I don't know. It's a queer
situation. A month or so ago I was at a tea in San Francisco, and
now I'm aboard a shark-fishing schooner sinking in Magdalena Bay;
and I'm with a girl that--that--that I--well, I'm with you, and,
well, you know how it is--I might as well say it--I love you more
than I imagined I ever could love a girl."
Moran's frown came back to her forehead.
"I don't like that kind of talk," she said; "I am not used to it,
and I don't know how to take it. Believe me," she said with a
half laugh, "it's all wasted. I never could love a man. I'm not
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: picture of divine and heavenly things which has very little likeness to
them; but we are more precise in our criticism of mortal and human things.
Wherefore if at the moment of speaking I cannot suitably express my
meaning, you must excuse me, considering that to form approved likenesses
of human things is the reverse of easy. This is what I want to suggest to
you, and at the same time to beg, Socrates, that I may have not less, but
more indulgence conceded to me in what I am about to say. Which favour, if
I am right in asking, I hope that you will be ready to grant.
SOCRATES: Certainly, Critias, we will grant your request, and we will
grant the same by anticipation to Hermocrates, as well as to you and
Timaeus; for I have no doubt that when his turn comes a little while hence,
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