| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: King that was a priest; and when he had looked in it, and seen
himself like a King, and his house like a King's house, and all
things like themselves, he cried out and blessed God. "For now I
know," said he, "there is no truth but the plain truth; and I am a
King indeed, although my heart misgave me." And he pulled down his
temple, and built a new one; and then the younger son was married
to the maid.
In the meantime the elder son rode into the world to find the
touchstone of the trial of truth; and whenever he came to a place
of habitation, he would ask the men if they had heard of it. And
in every place the men answered: "Not only have we heard of it, but
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: sometimes I gave her hopes, beginning a sentence rather weakly,
when her shrewd eye would light up--she thought she had me;
having led her a little way, I delighted to turn round and finish
with sound, hard sense, whereat her countenance would fall. At
last a servant entered to announce dinner; the conflict being
thus necessarily terminated, we parted without having gained any
advantage on either side: Mdlle. Reuter had not even given me an
opportunity of attacking her with feeling, and I had managed to
baffle her little schemes of craft. It was a regular drawn
battle. I again held out my hand when I left the room, she gave
me hers; it was a small and white hand, but how cool! I met her
The Professor |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: at cards had a lofty distinction which everybody noticed: he never
complained; he praised his adversaries when they lost; he did not
rebuke or teach his partners by showing them how they ought to have
played. When, in the course of a deal, those sickening dissertations
on the game would take place, the chevalier invariably drew out his
snuff-box with a gesture that was worthy of Mole, looked at the
Princess Goritza, raised the cover with dignity, shook, sifted, massed
the snuff, and gathered his pinch, so that by the time the cards were
dealt he had decorated both nostrils and replaced the princess in his
waistcoat pocket,--always on his left side. A gentleman of the "good"
century (in distinction from the "grand" century) could alone have
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