| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: turned his horse's bridle towards the cottage in which his family
had found refuge.
As he approached the door, he heard whispering and tittering
amongst his sisters. "The deevil's in the women," said poor
Hobbie; "they would nicker, and laugh, and giggle, if their best
friend was lying a corp--and yet I am glad they can keep up their
hearts sae weel, poor silly things; but the dirdum fa's on me, to
be sure, and no on them."
While he thus meditated, he was engaged in fastening up his horse
in a shed. "Thou maun do without horse-sheet and surcingle now,
lad," he said, addressing the animal; "you and me hae had a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: depraved taste by a sentence of death, you do not know the grip that a
man's failings have upon him; let a man discover some satisfaction for
himself, and the headsman will not keep him from it.--How is it that
the vice has this power? Is it inherent strength in the vice, or
inherent weakness in human nature? Are there certain tastes that
should be regarded as verging on insanity? For myself, I cannot help
laughing at the moralists who try to expel such diseases by fine
phrases.--Well, it so fell out that the steward refused a demand for
money; and the Duke taking fright at this, called for an audit. Sheer
imbecility! Nothing easier than to make out a balance-sheet; the
difficulty never lies there. The steward gave his secretary all the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: the whole scale of expressive hospitality. If it might be TO him,
it would be well; if it might be FOR him, it would be still better!
She was so tall and yet so light, so active and yet so still,
so elegant and yet so simple, so frank and yet so mysterious!
It was the mystery--it was what she was off the stage, as it were--
that interested Newman most of all. He could not have told you
what warrant he had for talking about mysteries; if it had been
his habit to express himself in poetic figures he might have said
that in observing Madame de Cintre he seemed to see the vague circle
which sometimes accompanies the partly-filled disk of the moon.
It was not that she was reserved; on the contrary, she was as frank
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