| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: In the sweet channel of her bosom dropp'd
But through the flood-gates breaks the silver rain,
And with his strong course opens them again. 960
O! how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow;
Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye;
Both crystals, where they view'd each other's sorrow,
Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry; 964
But like a stormy day, now wind, now rain,
Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again.
Variable passions throng her constant woe,
As striving who should best become her grief; 968
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: Felix went to her with tender gallantry, holding out
his hand, and Charlotte made a place for her on the sofa.
But Gertrude put her hands behind her and made no motion
to sit down.
"We are talking of you!" said Felix.
"I know it," she answered. "That 's why I came." And she fastened
her eyes on her father, who returned her gaze very fixedly.
In his own cold blue eyes there was a kind of pleading, reasoning light.
"It is better you should be present," said Mr. Wentworth.
"We are discussing your future."
"Why discuss it?" asked Gertrude. "Leave it to me."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: than fifteen thousand francs per annum from this manor, once among the
richest tenures of the kingdom, the lands of which had escaped the
sale of "public domain" ordered by the Convention, on account probably
of their barrenness and the known difficulty of reclaiming them.
When the rector went at last to Madame Graslin's apartment, and saw
the woman noted for her piety and for her intellect of whom he had
heard speak, he could not restrain a gesture of amazement. Veronique
had now reached the third phase of her life, that in which she was to
rise into grandeur by the exercise of the highest virtues,--a phase in
which she became another woman. To the Little Virgin of Titian, hidden
at eleven years of age beneath a spotted mantle of small-pox, had
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