| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: Curiously constituted is the soul of man. Knowing how and where
this man lied, waiting idly for the finale, I was distinctly
conscious, as he bubbled compliments in my ear, of soft thrills
of gratified pride stealing from hat-rim to boot-heels. I was
wise, quoth he--anybody could see that with half an eye;
sagacious, versed in the ways of the world, an acquaintance to be
desired; one who had tasted the cup of life with discretion.
All this pleased me, and in a measure numbed the suspicion that
was thoroughly aroused. Eventually the blue-eyed one discovered,
nay, insisted, that I had a taste for cards (this was clumsily
worked in, but it was my fault, for in that I met him half-way
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: Was flung cold from the whirlpools of water below;
The frail wooden balcony shook in the sound
Of the torrent. The mountains gloom'd sullenly round.
A candle one ray from a closed casement flung.
O'er the dim balustrade all bewilder'd he hung,
Vaguely watching the broken and shimmering blink
Of the stars on the veering and vitreous brink
Of that snake-like prone column of water; and listing
Aloof o'er the languors of air the persisting
Sharp horn of the gray gnat. Before he relinquish'd
His unconscious employment, that light was extinguish'd.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: be frost-bitten; stay in the fields for one hour, you'll be
buried in the snow; while the village is just the same as in the
days of Rurik, the same Petchenyegs and Polovtsi. It's nothing
but being burnt down, starving, and struggling against nature in
every way. What was I saying? Yes! If one thinks about it, you
know, looks into it and analyses all this hotchpotch, if you will
allow me to call it so, it's not life but more like a fire in a
theatre! Any one who falls down or screams with terror, or rushes
about, is the worst enemy of good order; one must stand up and
look sharp, and not stir a hair! There's no time for whimpering
and busying oneself with trifles. When you have to deal with
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