| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: on the threshold he found that the door itself, like the vaulted roof,
was hung with black; rows of lighted tapers shone brilliantly as
though some king were lying in state; and a priest stood on either
side of a catafalque that had been raised there.
"There is no need to ask why you have come, sir," the old hall porter
said to Castanier; "you are so like our poor dear master that is gone.
But if you are his brother, you have come too late to bid him
good-bye. The good gentleman died the night before last."
"How did he die?" Castanier asked of one of the priests.
"Set your mind at rest," said the old priest; he partly raised as he
spoke the black pall that covered the catafalque.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced
Dutch housewives! There was the doughty doughnut, the tender
olykoek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and
short cakes, ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family
of cakes. And then there were apple pies, and peach pies, and
pumpkin pies; besides slices of ham and smoked beef; and moreover
delectable dishes of preserved plums, and peaches, and pears, and
quinces; not to mention broiled shad and roasted chickens;
together with bowls of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-
pigglely, pretty much as I have enumerated them, with the
motherly teapot sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst--
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: in an empty jar on the stone shelf where
the milk pans stand.
The visitor was a neighbor, Mrs. Ribby;
she had called to borrow some yeast.
Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs mewing
dreadfully--"Come in, Cousin Ribby, come
in, and sit ye down! I'm in sad trouble,
Cousin Ribby," said Tabitha, shedding
tears. "I've lost my dear son Thomas; I'm
afraid the rats have got him." She wiped
her eyes with an apron.
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