| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: judicious mother had encouraged the friendship which bound Leopold to
Rodolphe and Rodolphe to Leopold, since she saw in the cold and
faithful young notary, a guardian, a comrade, who might to a certain
extent take her place if by some misfortune she should be lost to her
son. Rodolphe's mother, still handsome at three-and-forty, had
inspired Leopold with an ardent passion. This circumstance made the
two young men even more intimate.
So Leopold, knowing Rodolphe well, was not surprised to find him
stopping at a village and giving up the projected journey to Saint-
Gothard, on the strength of a single glance at the upper window of a
house. While breakfast was prepared for them at the Swan Inn, the
 Albert Savarus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: "Brown!" cried Carthew, "Brown, where are you?"
His heart smote him for the treacherous apostrophe, but no
answer came.
He groped in the bunks: they were all empty. Then he moved
towards the forepeak, which was hampered with coils of rope
and spare chandlery in general.
"Brown!" he said again.
"Here, sir," answered a shaking voice; and the poor invisible
caitiff called on him by name, and poured forth out of the
darkness an endless, garrulous appeal for mercy. A sense of
danger, of daring, had alone nerved Carthew to enter the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: waiting for it, waiting with the unanimous, unstable mob-mind for
the one of them who would make the first action that would
precipitate all of them into a common action. Sheldon looked for
this one, for such was the one to fear. Directly beneath him he
caught sight of the muzzle of a rifle, barely projecting between
two black bodies, that was slowly elevating toward him. It was
held at the hip by a man in the second row.
"What name you?" Sheldon suddenly shouted, pointing directly at the
man who held the gun, who startled and lowered the muzzle.
Sheldon still held the whip hand, and he intended to keep it.
"Clear out, all you fella boys," he ordered. "Clear out and walk
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