| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: and Contrasted"; "Melancholy"; "Filial Love";
"Heart Longings," etc., etc.
A prevalent feature in these compositions was a
nursed and petted melancholy; another was a wasteful
and opulent gush of "fine language"; another was a
tendency to lug in by the ears particularly prized words
and phrases until they were worn entirely out; and
a peculiarity that conspicuously marked and marred
them was the inveterate and intolerable sermon that
wagged its crippled tail at the end of each and every
one of them. No matter what the subject might be, a
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: above the power of a common man, he dismissed me astonished at his
wisdom and enamoured of his goodness.
"My credit was now so high that the merchants with whom I had
travelled applied to me for recommendations to the ladies of the
Court. I was surprised at their confidence of solicitation and
greatly reproached them with their practices on the road. They
heard me with cold indifference, and showed no tokens of shame or
sorrow.
"They then urged their request with the offer of a bribe, but what
I would not do for kindness I would not do for money, and refused
them, not because they had injured me, but because I would not
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: unprepared."
"You see, she don't want to hurt the doctor's feelings, so she
don't say anything to him about it; but she is always polite,
herself, and it hurts that kind for people to be rude to them."
"I'll have that doctor hanged."
"Marse Tom, she don't WANT him hanged. She - "
"Well, then, I'll have him boiled in oil."
"But she don't WANT him boiled. I - "
"Oh, very well, very well, I only want to please her; I'll have him
skinned."
"Why, SHE don't want him skinned; it would break her heart. Now -
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