The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: assumption of his title.
"What a mockery of fortune! A prince--with fifteen hundred francs a
year! Master of one of the finest palaces in the world, and unable to
sell the statues, stairs, paintings, sculpture, which an Austrian
decree had made inalienable! To live on a foundation of piles of
campeachy wood worth nearly a million of francs, and have no
furniture! To own sumptuous galleries, and live in an attic above the
topmost arabesque cornice constructed of marble brought from the Morea
--the land which a Memmius had marched over as conqueror in the time
of the Romans! To see his ancestors in effigy on their tombs of
precious marbles in one of the most splendid churches in Venice, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to search for them. Sometimes I was not so sure but that I
should have been more contented to know that Dian was here
in Phutra, than to think of her at the mercy of Hooja
the Sly One. Ghak, Perry, and I often talked together
of possible escape, but the Sarian was so steeped in his
lifelong belief that no one could escape from the Mahars
except by a miracle, that he was not much aid to us--his
attitude was of one who waits for the miracle to come to him.
At my suggestion Perry and I fashioned some swords of scraps
of iron which we discovered among some rubbish in the cells
where we slept, for we were permitted almost unrestrained
 At the Earth's Core |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: "I'll see the Attorney-General to-night, and will send for you to-
morrow morning. Is there anything more you'd wish to tell me now?"
The Assistant Commissioner had stood up also, slender and flexible.
"I think not, Sir Ethelred, unless I were to enter into details
which - "
"No. No details, please."
The great shadowy form seemed to shrink away as if in physical
dread of details; then came forward, expanded, enormous, and
weighty, offering a large hand. "And you say that this man has got
a wife?"
"Yes, Sir Ethelred," said the Assistant Commissioner, pressing
 The Secret Agent |