| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: Tuppence's whereabouts. So well had the abduction been planned
that the girl seemed literally to have vanished into thin air.
And another preoccupation was weighing on Tommy's mind.
"Do you know how long we've been here?" he asked one morning as
they sat facing each other at breakfast. "A week! We're no
nearer to finding Tuppence, and NEXT SUNDAY IS THE 29TH!"
"Shucks!" said Julius thoughtfully. "I'd almost forgotten about
the 29th. I've been thinking of nothing but Tuppence."
"So have I. At least, I hadn't forgotten about the 29th, but it
didn't seem to matter a damn in comparison to finding Tuppence.
But to-day's the 23rd, and time's getting short. If we're ever
 Secret Adversary |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: must not be concealed, however, that the impression wrought by
this fairy sign manual varied exceedingly, according to the
difference of temperament in the beholders. Some fastidious
persons--but they were exclusively of her own sex--affirmed that
the bloody hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the
effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even
hideous. But it would be as reasonable to say that one of those
small blue stains which sometimes occur in the purest statuary
marble would convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine
observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration,
contented themselves with wishing it away, that the world might
 Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: till one, and then gave it up; and we lit the lantern and
walked over to his house. Down below in the darkness were
Ottershaw and Chertsey and all their hundreds of people,
sleeping in peace.
He was full of speculation that night about the condition
of Mars, and scoffed at the vulgar idea of its having in-
habitants who were signalling us. His idea was that meteorites
might be falling in a heavy shower upon the planet, or that
a huge volcanic explosion was in progress. He pointed out
to me how unlikely it was that organic evolution had taken
the same direction in the two adjacent planets.
 War of the Worlds |