| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Poems by Bronte Sisters: 'Tis better far away;
I know how fast my tears would swell
To see it smile to-day.
For, oh! when chill the sunbeams fall
Adown that dreary sky,
And gild yon dank and darkened wall
With transient brilliancy;
How do I weep, how do I pine
For the time of flowers to come,
And turn me from that fading shine,
To mourn the fields of home!
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: the fact that at intervals he could intrude his long nose into his
companions' troughs (especially when Selifan happened to be absent
from the stable) and ascertain what THEIR provender was like. But at
Nozdrev's there had been nothing but hay! That was not right. All
three horses felt greatly discontented.
But presently the malcontents had their reflections cut short in a
very rude and unexpected manner. That is to say, they were brought
back to practicalities by coming into violent collision with a
six-horsed vehicle, while upon their heads descended both a babel of
cries from the ladies inside and a storm of curses and abuse from the
coachman. "Ah, you damned fool!" he vociferated. "I shouted to you
 Dead Souls |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: architect to Montegnac. The banker intended to restore the chateau,
gardens, terrace, and park, and also to connect the castle grounds
with the forest by a plantation. He set himself to make these
improvements with vainglorious activity.
A few months later Madame Graslin met with a great misfortune. In
August, 1830, Graslin, overtaken by the commercial and banking
disasters of that period, became involved by no fault of his own. He
could not endure the thought of bankruptcy, nor that of losing a
fortune of three millions acquired by forty years of incessant toil.
The moral malady which resulted from this anguish of mind aggravated
the inflammatory disease always ready to break forth in his blood. He
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