| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: references to books and periodicals. In exactly the same way, he
argued, we exaggerate the range of pain as if it were limitless. We
think if we are unthinking that it passes into agony and so beyond
endurance to destruction. It probably does nothing of the kind.
Benham compared pain to the death range of the electric current. At
a certain voltage it thrills, at a greater it torments and
convulses, at a still greater it kills. But at enormous voltages,
as Tesla was the first to demonstrate, it does no injury. And
following on this came memoranda on the recorded behaviour of
martyrs, on the self-torture of Hindoo ascetics, of the defiance of
Red Indian prisoners.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: high-bred manner of a great lady.
Mme. de Beauseant stood out in such strong contrast against the
automatons among whom he had spent two months of exile in that out-of-
the-world district of Normandy, that he could not but find in her the
realization of his romantic dreams; and, on the other hand, he could
not compare her perfections with those of other women whom he had
formerly admired. Here in her presence, in a drawing-room like some
salon in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, full of costly trifles lying
about upon the tables, and flowers and books, he felt as if he were
back in Paris. It was a real Parisian carpet beneath his feet, he saw
once more the high-bred type of Parisienne, the fragile outlines of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: I will never forget it.
"At all times and for ever I shall be at your service, but instead of
saying with Robert Macaire, 'Let us embrace!' I embrace you."
He seized Corentin round the middle so suddenly that the other could
not avoid the hug; he clutched him to his heart like a doll, kissed
him on both cheeks, carried him like a feather with one hand, while
with the other he opened the door, and then set him down outside,
quite battered by this rough treatment.
"Good-bye, my dear fellow," said Jacques Collin in a low voice, and in
Corentin's ear: "the length of three corpses parts you from me; we
have measured swords, they are of the same temper and the same length.
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