| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: The thing (I will not call her a ship twice in the same half-hour)
leaked. She leaked fully, generously, overflowingly, all over -
like a basket. I took an enthusiastic part in the excitement
caused by that last infirmity of noble ships, without concerning
myself much with the why or the wherefore. The surmise of my
maturer years is that, bored by her interminable life, the
venerable antiquity was simply yawning with ennui at every seam.
But at the time I did not know; I knew generally very little, and
least of all what I was doing in that GALERE.
I remember that, exactly as in the comedy of Moliere, my uncle
asked the precise question in the very words - not of my
 The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: on the heights. A cry of alarm arose from the multitude, who started
to their feet in an instant. Every man now understood his danger
instinctively, and the whole mass rushed to gain the bridge with the
motion of a wave.
The Russians came down with the rapidity of a conflagration. Men,
women, children, horses,--all rushed tumultuously to the bridge.
Fortunately the major, who was carrying the countess, was still some
distance from it. General Eble had just set fire to the supports on
the other bank. In spite of the warnings shouted to those who were
rushing upon the bridge, not a soul went back. Not only did the bridge
go down crowded with human beings, but the impetuosity of that flood
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: squatted down. Polychrome climbed over his big body and
sat herself lightly upon the flat head, holding the
bundle of the Scarecrow's raiment in her hand. Slowly
the elastic neck stretched out until it reached the far
side of the ditch, when the beast lowered his head and
permitted the beautiful fairy to leap to the ground.
Woot made the queer journey next, and then the Tin
Soldier and the Tin Woodman went over, and all were
well pleased to have overcome this serious barrier to
their progress.
"Now, Soldier, cut the hay," said the Scarecrow's
 The Tin Woodman of Oz |