| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: upon the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of
moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is
too late. Your cough--"
"It is nothing," he said; "let us go on. But first, another
draught of the Medoc."
I broke and reached him a flagon of De Grave. He emptied it
at a breath. His eyes flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and
threw the bottle upwards with a gesticulation I did not understand.
I looked at him in surprise. He repeated the movement--a
grotesque one.
"You do not comprehend?" he said.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: King, which I did in very warm terms, telling him that we were
assured by the Emperor of a reception in this country far different
from what we met with, which assurances he had confirmed by his
promise and the civilities we were entertained with at our first
arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate our
miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the
midst of mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us.
The King, who affected to appear ignorant of the whole affair,
demanded an account of the injuries I complained of, and told me
that if any of his subjects should dare to attempt our lives, it
should cost him his own. We were not, replied I, in danger of being
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: ever seen in his life. He had a very large nose, slightly brass-
colored; his cheeks were very round and very red, and might have
warranted a supposition that he had been blowing a refractory fire
for the last eight-and-forty hours; his eyes twinkled merrily
through long, silky eyelashes; his mustaches curled twice round like
a corkscrew on each side of his mouth; and his hair, of a curious
mixed pepper-and-salt color, descended far over his shoulders. He
was about four feet six in height and wore a conical pointed cap of
nearly the same altitude, decorated with a black feather some three
feet long. His doublet was prolonged behind into something
resembling a violent exaggeration of what is now termed a
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