| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: but the St. Nicholas bell is a good deal the worst one
that has been contrived yet, and is peculiarly maddening
in its operation. Still, it may have its right and its
excuse to exist, for the community is poor and not every
citizen can afford a clock, perhaps; but there cannot be
any excuse for our church-bells at home, for their is no
family in America without a clock, and consequently there
is no fair pretext for the usual Sunday medley of dreadful
sounds that issues from our steeples. There is much more
profanity in America on Sunday than is all in the other six
days of the week put together, and it is of a more bitter
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: And they were clad with wings;
And lo, they brought a joyful song
The host of heaven sings.
The kings they knocked upon the door,
The wise-men entered in,
The shepherds followed after them
To hear the song begin.
And Mary held the little child
And sat upon the ground;
She looked up, she looked down,
She looked all around.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: the little children sleeping in their beds beyond the sea--what
then? Why, then, in the evening hour, one might have thoughts of
home that would go across the ocean by way of heaven, and be better
than dreams, almost as good as prayers.
AT THE SIGN OF THE BALSAM BOUGH
"Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, or hills, or field,
Or woods and steepy mountains yield.
"There we will rest our sleepy heads,
And happy hearts, on balsam beds;
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