| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: in five stakes. Then Lucien, in a frenzy, flung down his last twenty-
five francs on the number of his age, and won. No words can describe
how his hands trembled as he raked in the coins which the bank paid
him one by one. He handed ten louis to Lousteau.
"Fly!" he cried; "take it to Very's."
Lousteau took the hint and went to order dinner. Lucien, left alone,
laid his thirty louis on the red and won. Emboldened by the inner
voice which a gambler always hears, he staked the whole again on the
red, and again he won. He felt as if there were a furnace within him.
Without heeding the voice, he laid a hundred and twenty louis on the
black and lost. Then to the torturing excitement of suspense succeeded
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: From the very beginning there had been threats to kill him. He
was constantly receiving letters of warning from zealous or
nervous friends. The War Department inquired into these when
there seemed to be ground for doing so, but always without
result. Warnings that appeared most definite proved on
examination too vague and confused for further attention. The
President knew that he was in some danger. Madmen frequently made
their way to the very door of the Executive Office; sometimes
into Mr. Lincoln's presence; but he himself had so sane a mind,
and a heart so kindly even to his enemies, that it was hard for
him to believe in political hatred deadly enough to lead to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: while we were near enough to come up to them before they could load
their pieces again. But this event did not happen; and we lay
still a long time, very irresolute what course to take. At length
I told them there would be nothing done, in my opinion, till night;
and then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find
a way to get between them and the shore, and so might use some
stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore. We waited a
great while, though very impatient for their removing; and were
very uneasy when, after long consultation, we saw them all start up
and march down towards the sea; it seems they had such dreadful
apprehensions of the danger of the place that they resolved to go
Robinson Crusoe |
