| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: manger. You don't want to eat the hay yourself, yet you won't let
anyone else touch it. All that I am seeking to do is to purchase
certain domestic products of yours, for the reason that I have certain
Government contracts to fulfil." This last he added in passing, and
without any ulterior motive, save that it came to him as a happy
thought. Nevertheless the mention of Government contracts exercised a
powerful influence upon Nastasia Petrovna, and she hastened to say in
a tone that was almost supplicatory:
"Why should you be so angry with me? Had I known that you were going
to lose your temper in this way, I should never have discussed the
matter."
 Dead Souls |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: again with furious leaps; and while they were moving aside, trying to
stop it, or looking at it in surprise, the Carthaginians had united
again; they entered, and the enormous gate shut echoing behind them.
It would not yield. The Barbarians came crushing against it;--and for
some minutes there was an oscillation throughout the army, which
became weaker and weaker, and at last ceased.
The Carthaginians had placed soldiers on the aqueduct, they began to
hurl stones, balls, and beams. Spendius represented that it would be
best not to persist. The Barbarians went and posted themselves further
off, all being quite resolved to lay siege to Carthage.
The rumour of the war, however, had passed beyond the confines of the
 Salammbo |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: the strange disappearance of the little child. Every autumn with
the hunters came the unhappy parents of the lost baby to search
again for him.
Toward the latter part of the tenth season when, one by one,
the teepees were folded and the families went away from the lake
region, the mother walked again along the lake shore weeping. One
evening, across the lake from where the crying woman stood, a pair
of bright black eyes peered at her through the tall reeds and wild
rice. A little wild boy stopped his play among the tall grasses.
His long, loose hair hanging down his brown back and shoulders was
carelessly tossed from his round face. He wore a loin cloth of
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