| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: "Gentlemen!" he said -- and his voice was
quiet though lower in tone than usual -- "gentle-
men, what is the good of futile discussions?
You wish for proofs? I propose that we try the
experiment on ourselves: whether a man can of
his own accord dispose of his life, or whether the
fateful moment is appointed beforehand for each
of us. Who is agreeable?"
"Not I. Not I," came from all sides.
"There's a queer fellow for you! He does get
strange ideas into his head!"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: in the hand of another Moses, the waters of infancy rolled back,
and the way was opened into the promised land, whither the tyrant
nurses, with all their proud array of baby-chariots, could not
follow. The way was open, but not by any means dry. One of the
first events in the dispensation of the rod was the purchase of a
pair of high rubber boots. Inserted in this armour of modern
infantry, and transfigured with delight, the boy clumped through
all the little rivers within a circuit of ten miles from Caldwell,
and began to learn by parental example the yet unmastered art of
complete angling.
But because some of the streams were deep and strong, and his legs
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: to his house, which became the home of the Cinq-Cygne household and
the lawyers of the defence during the whole time the trial lasted.
After dinner, when the doors were closed, Bordin made Laurence relate
every circumstance of the affair, entreating her to omit nothing, not
the most trifling detail. Though many of the facts had already been
told to him and his young assistant by the marquis on their journey
from Paris to Troyes, Bordin listened, his feet on the fender, without
obtruding himself into the recital. The young lawyer, however, could
not help being divided between his admiration for Mademoiselle de
Cinq-Cygne, and the attention he was bound to give to the facts of his
case.
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