The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: "Yes, Mr. Hammond," said Jean, and she ran her finger down the dent of his
felt hat.
But suddenly she caught him by the ear and gave a loud scream. "Lo-ok, Mr.
Hammond! She's moving! Look, she's coming in!"
By Jove! So she was. At last! She was slowly, slowly turning round. A
bell sounded far over the water and a great spout of steam gushed into the
air. The gulls rose; they fluttered away like bits of white paper. And
whether that deep throbbing was her engines or his heart Mr. Hammond
couldn't say. He had to nerve himself to bear it, whatever it was. At
that moment old Captain Johnson, the harbour-master, came striding down the
wharf, a leather portfolio under his arm.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: seignorial bedroom under the spell of his tenderest memories. In that
bed his mother had slept; her thoughts had been confided to the
furnishings of that room; she had used them; her eyes had often
wandered among those draperies; how often she had gone to that window
to call with a cry, a sign, her poor disowned child, now master of the
chateau. Alone in that room, whither he had last come secretly,
brought by Beauvouloir to kiss his dying mother, he fancied that she
lived again; he spoke to her, he listened to her, he drank from that
spring that never faileth, and from which have flowed so many songs
like the "Super flumina Babylonis."
The day after Beauvouloir's return he went to see his young master and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: which he had given bond to observe. He, however, having done it
at the instance of the General, and for His Majesty's service,
and having some powerful interest at court, despis'd the threats
and they were never put in execution. . . . [Unfinished].
CHIEF EVENTS IN FRANKLIN'S LIFE
[Ending, as it does, with the year 1757, the autobiography leaves
important facts un-recorded. It has seemed advisable, therefore, to
detail the chief events in Franklin's life, from the beginning, in
the following list:
1706 He is born, in Boston, and baptized in the Old South Church.
1714 At the age of eight, enters the Grammar School.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |