| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: the sacrificial beasts exceeded ten times that number. He issued a
proclamation also to this effect: a golden wreath of victory should be
given to whichever city could produce the best-bred bull to head the
procession in honour of the god. And lastly there was an order issued
to all the Thessalians to be ready for a campaign at the date of the
Pythian games. His intention, as people said, was to act as manager of
the solemn assembly and games in person. What the thought was that
passed through his mind with reference to the sacred money, remains to
this day uncertain; only, a tale is rife to the effect that in answer
to the inquiry of the Delphians, "What ought we to do, if he takes any
of the treasures of the god?" the god made answer, "He would see to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: He waved away the glass of wine handed to him by the flageolet, and
bowed his head. He had no heart to drink. These details were not
calculated to extinguish my curiosity.
As the three ground out the music of the square dance, I gazed at the
old Venetian noble, thinking thoughts that set a young man's mind
afire at the age of twenty. I saw Venice and the Adriatic; I saw her
ruin in the ruin of the face before me. I walked to and fro in that
city, so beloved of her citizens; I went from the Rialto Bridge, along
the Grand Canal, and from the Riva degli Schiavoni to the Lido,
returning to St. Mark's, that cathedral so unlike all others in its
sublimity. I looked up at the windows of the Casa Doro, each with its
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: to excite each other's enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the
evening Guillaume, shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced
his accounts, carried on the balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and
made out bills. All three were busy over this enormous labor, of which
the result could be stated on a sheet of foolscap, proving to the head
of the house that there was so much to the good in hard cash, so much
in goods, so much in bills and notes; that he did not owe a sou; that
a hundred or two hundred thousand francs were owing to him; that the
capital had been increased; that the farmlands, the houses, or the
investments were extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became
necessary to begin again with increased ardor, to accumulate more
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