| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: came through an opening in the shrubbery and across the lawn. She
vanished, and met him in the porch, afterwards coming in with her
hands behind her back.
'How many are there? Three for papa, one for Mr. Smith, none for
Miss Swancourt. And, papa, look here, one of yours is from--whom
do you think?--Lord Luxellian. And it has something HARD in it--a
lump of something. I've been feeling it through the envelope, and
can't think what it is.'
'What does Luxellian write for, I wonder?' Mr. Swancourt had said
simultaneously with her words. He handed Stephen his letter, and
took his own, putting on his countenance a higher class of look
 A Pair of Blue Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: declared that the destiny of every man was written in the words or
phrase given by the transposition of the letters of his names and
titles; and his patriotism struggled hard to suppress the fact--signal
evidence for his theory--that in Horatio Nelson, "honor est a Nilo."
Ever since the accession of Charles X., he had bestowed much thought
on the king's anagram. Thuillier, who was fond of making puns,
declared that an anagram was nothing more than a pun on letters. The
sight of Colleville, a man of real feeling, bound almost indissolubly
to Thuillier, the model of an egoist, presented a difficult problem to
the mind of an observer. The clerks in the offices explained it by
saying, "Thuillier is rich, and the Colleville household costly." This
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: old friend in Putney, with a carriage at her command,
a new name on her tickets, and a brilliant exhibition
of hoop rings on her finger.
When the contents of the letter were ascertained,
John Thorpe, who had only waited its arrival to begin his
journey to London, prepared to set off. "Well, Miss Morland,"
said he, on finding her alone in the parlour, "I am come
to bid you good-bye." Catherine wished him a good journey.
Without appearing to hear her, he walked to the window,
fidgeted about, hummed a tune, and seemed wholly
self-occupied.
 Northanger Abbey |