The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: To-night the palest wave we sip
Rich as the priceless draught shall be
That wet the bride of Cana's lip, -
The wedding wine of Galilee!
CHAPTER VI.
SIN has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
- I think, Sir, - said the divinity-student, - you must intend that
for one of the sayings of the Seven Wise Men of Boston you were
speaking of the other day.
I thank you, my young friend, - was my reply, - but I must say
something better than that, before I could pretend to fill out the
 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: blue sky, the glories of its lands, and the fabulous riches of life
there. She had fine eyes, shaded by deep eyelids, fringed with thick,
curled lashes. Biblical innocence sat on her brow. Her complexion was
of the pure whiteness of the Levite's robe. She was habitually silent
and thoughtful, but her movements and gestures betrayed a quiet grace,
as her speech bore witness to a woman's sweet and loving nature. She
had not, indeed, the rosy freshness, the fruit-like bloom which blush
on a girl's cheek during her careless years. Darker shadows, with here
and there a redder vein, took the place of color, symptomatic of an
energetic temper and nervous irritability, such as many men do not
like to meet with in a wife, while to others they are an indication of
 Louis Lambert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: tracings with a pencil while he talked.
"This is Penetier. Here are the Arizona Peaks. The heavy shading represents
timbered land. All these are canyons. Here's Oak Creek Canyon, the one the
fire bordered. Now I want you to tell me how you worked that back-fire,
and, if you can, mark the line you fired."
This appeared to me an easy task, and certainly one I was enthusiastic
over. I told him just how I had come to the canyon, and how I saw that the
fire would surely cross there, and that a back-fire was the only chance.
Then, carefully studying the map, I marked off the three miles Herky and I
had fired.
"Very good. You had help in this?"
 The Young Forester |