The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: continued to draw near, besides, a regular and panting throb
began to divide the silence. First it seemed to me like the
beating of a heart; and next it put into my mind the thought
of some giant, smothered under mountains and still, with
incalculable effort, fetching breath. I had heard of the
railway, though I had not seen it, and I turned to ask the
driver if this resembled it. But some look in his eye, some
pallor, whether of fear or moonlight on his face, caused the
words to die upon my lips. We continued, therefore, to
advance in silence, till we were close below the lighted
house; when suddenly, without one premonitory rustle, there
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: "Tullia was irresistible; she twisted du Bruel round her fingers, the
sky grew blue again, the evening was glorious. And ingenious writer of
plays as he is, he never so much as saw that his wife had buried a
trouble out of sight.
" 'Such is life, my dear fellow,' he said to me, 'ups and downs and
contrasts.'
" 'Especially life off the stage,' I put in.
" 'That is just what I mean,' he continued. 'Why, but for these
violent emotions, one would be bored to death! Ah! that woman has the
gift of rousing me.'
"We went to the Varietes after dinner; but before we left the house I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
 The Gift of the Magi |