| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: growing on every branch, and Cap'n Bill hesitated no longer. He
grabbed with both hands and picked two apples, while Trot had only
time to secure one before they were gone.
"It's curious," remarked the sailor, munching his apple, "how these
fruits keep good when you've picked 'em, but dis'pear inter thin air if
they're left on the bush."
"The whole thing is curious," declared the girl, "and it couldn't
exist in any country but this, where magic is so common. Those are
limes. Don't pick 'em, for they'd pucker up your mouth and--Ooo! here
come plums!" and she tucked her apple in her apron pocket and captured
three plums--each one almost as big as an egg--before they disappeared.
The Magic of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: And even then," added Gaston, pointing the flambeau to the
spot, "even then this red stain resisted all the attempts
made to destroy it."
Louis XIV. raised his head. Perhaps he was thinking of that
bloody trace that had once been shown him at the Louvre, and
which, as a pendant to that of Blois, had been made there
one day by the king his father with the blood of Concini.
"Let us go on," said he.
The march was resumed promptly, for emotion, no doubt, had
given to the voice of the young prince a tone of command
which was not customary with him. When arrived at the
Ten Years Later |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: It was the dream of a waking man. I waxed hot with them over the
foreman's tyranny, or the bad customers that made them call again and
again for payment.
To come out of my own ways of life, to be another than myself through
a kind of intoxication of the intellectual faculties, and to play this
game at will, such was my recreation. Whence comes the gift? Is it a
kind of second sight? Is it one of those powers which when abused end
in madness? I have never tried to discover its source; I possess it, I
use it, that is all. But this it behooves you to know, that in those
days I began to resolve the heterogeneous mass known as the People
into its elements, and to evaluate its good and bad qualities. Even
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