| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: good walking," it said. "I am a little particular about what I
have underfoot. Suppose you get off into the water."
It occurred that way.
The Crimson Candle
A MAN lying at the point of death called his wife to his bedside
and said:
"I am about to leave you forever; give me, therefore, one last
proof of your affection and fidelity, for, according to our holy
religion, a married man seeking admittance at the gate of Heaven is
required to swear that he has never defiled himself with an
unworthy woman. In my desk you will find a crimson candle, which
 Fantastic Fables |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: it were possible, in his love affairs, one of these souls absorbed in
money and trade, to whom a genuine passion must appear a quite
monstrous speculation, a thing unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was
altered at the sign of the Cat and Racket. If Augustine was absent-
minded, if, against all obedience to the domestic code, she stole up
to her room to make signals by means of a jar of flowers, if she
sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one observed it, not even her
mother. This will cause some surprise to those who have entered into
the spirit of the household, where an idea tainted with poetry would
be in startling contrast to persons and things, where no one could
venture on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and analyzed.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: first horse, when this Macedonian horse ran and knew he had beaten
the other horses, instead of letting up he redoubled his efforts and
ran even harder--as hard as he could--for he now ran not against the
fortuitous competitors with whom he began the race, but against his
own heart: against all horses past and all horses future, against
every horse in Macedonia and every one in Arabia, and also against
the ideal horse with a pace so frighteningly fast that few can
conceive its possibility. And even more than this, he ran toward
the perfection of excellence itself. And when he crossed the
finish line, as happy as he was to win, he secretly lamented that
his opponents had not been fast enough to threaten him and push
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