| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: present, and have read about the past. It is not a sad sight to
see your old father--tradesman, or clerk, or what not--who has
done good work in his day, and hopes to do some more, sitting by
your old mother, who has done good work in her day--among the
rest, that heaviest work of all, the bringing you into the world
and keeping you in it till now--honest, kindly, cheerful folk
enough, and not inefficient in their own calling; though an
average Northumbrian, or Highlander, or Irish Easterling, beside
carrying a brain of five times the intellectual force, could drive
five such men over the cliff with his bare hands. It is not a sad
sight, I say, to see them sitting about upon those seaside
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: Then, when I have settled down for life, I shall be better
able to take things as they come."
"And when does your marriage take place?"
"About six weeks hence."
Valentin was silent a while, and then he said, "And you feel
very confident about the future?"
"Confident. I knew what I wanted, exactly, and I know what I have got."
"You are sure you are going to be happy?"
"Sure?" said Newman. "So foolish a question deserves a foolish answer. Yes!"
"You are not afraid of anything?"
"What should I be afraid of? You can't hurt me unless you
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: Just her age who was so gentle, and lovely, and all the
world to me, and whom I shall never see again! How
the thought of her carries me back over wide seas of
memory to a vague dim time, a happy time, so many,
many centuries hence, when I used to wake in the soft
summer mornings, out of sweet dreams of her, and say
"Hello, Central!" just to hear her dear voice come
melting back to me with a "Hello, Hank!" that was
music of the spheres to my enchanted ear. She got
three dollars a week, but she was worth it.
I could not follow Alisande's further explanation of
 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |