The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: There seemed but one thing to do; that was to keep
on sailing straight before the wind--since we could
travel most rapidly along that course--until we sighted
land of some description. If it chanced to be the
mainland, well and good; if an island--well, we might
live upon an island. We certainly could not live long
in this little boat, with only a few strips of dried thag
and a few quarts of water left.
Quite suddenly a thought occurred to me. I was
surprised that it had not come before as a solution
to our problem. I turned toward Juag.
 Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: against the flies. Three more pessimistic-looking horses I never
saw. They were harnessed abreast, and fastened by a prodigious
tow-rope to a short post in the middle of the forward deck. Their
driver was a truculent, brigandish, bearded old fellow in long
boots, a blue flannel shirt, and a black sombrero. He sat upon the
middle horse, and some wild instinct of colour had made him tie a
big red handkerchief around his shoulders, so that the eye of the
beholder took delight in him. He posed like a bold, bad robber-
chief. But in point of fact I believe he was the mildest and most
inoffensive of men. We never heard him say anything except at a
distance, to his horses, and we did not inquire what that was.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: to thrive there.
The drawing-room on the ground floor was lighted by a single window on
the side of the street, and a French window above a flight of steps,
which gave upon the garden. The dining-room on the other side of the
great ante-chamber, with its windows also looking out into the garden,
was exactly the same size as the drawing-room, and all three
apartments were in harmony with the general air of gloom. It wearied
your eyes to look at the ceilings all divided up by huge painted
crossbeams and adorned with a feeble lozenge pattern or a rosette in
the middle. The paint was old, startling in tint, and begrimed with
smoke. The sun had faded the heavy silk curtains in the drawing-room;
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