| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: our seats round the table. This was a little prim, for I did not
know exactly how much I might talk to others in the immediate
presence of the Queen, and everybody seemed a little constrained.
She spoke to us all, and very soon such of the gentlemen as were
allowed by their rank, joined us at the round table. Lord Dalhousie
came again to my side and I had as pleasant a conversation with him,
rather SOTTO VOCE, however, as I could have had at a private house.
At half-past ten the Queen rose and shook hands with each lady; we
curtsied profoundly, and she and the Prince departed. We then bade
each other good-night, and found our carriages as soon as we chose.
LETTER: To W.D.B. and A.B.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: wine to the assembled parents in the office, and the combatants
were separated, and Joseph's spirit (for he was the smaller of
the two) commended by the gentleman in the Wellington boots, who
vowed he had been just such another at the same age. Joseph
wondered to himself if he had worn at that time little
Wellingtons and a little bald head, and when, in bed at night, he
grew tired of telling himself stories of sea-fights, he used to
dress himself up as the old gentleman, and entertain other little
boys and girls with cake and wine.
In the year 1840 the thirty-seven were all alive; in 1850 their
number had decreased by six; in 1856 and 1857 business was more
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: somewhat similar in shape, where the countess kept her books, papers,
and jewels. Antique chairs covered with damask, a large and greenish
mirror, made in Venice, and richly framed in a sort of rolling toilet-
table, completed the furnishings of the room. The floor was covered
with a Persian carpet, the richness of which proved the gallantry of
the count; on the upper step of the bed stood a little table, on which
the waiting-woman served every night in a gold or silver cup a drink
prepared with spices.
After we have gone some way in life we know the secret influence
exerted by places on the condition of the soul. Who has not had his
darksome moments, when fresh hope has come into his heart from things
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