| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: streets, came into the back stable lane, and watched for a long while
the light burn steady in the Judge's room. The longer he gazed upon
that illuminated window-blind, the more blank became the picture of the
man who sat behind it, endlessly turning over sheets of process, pausing
to sip a glass of port, or rising and passing heavily about his book-
lined walls to verify some reference. He could not combine the brutal
judge and the industrious, dispassionate student; the connecting link
escaped him; from such a dual nature, it was impossible he should
predict behaviour; and he asked himself if he had done well to plunge
into a business of which the end could not be foreseen? and presently
after, with a sickening decline of confidence, if he had done loyally to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: improved my own education a little. And then Mitya fell ill when
he was already in the fourth form, and God took him. Masha fell
in love with Vanya, my son-in-law. And--well, he is well-meaning
but unfortunate. He is ill.'
'Mamma!'--her daughter's voice interrupted her--'Take Mitya! I
can't be in two places at once.'
Praskovya Mikhaylovna shuddered, but rose and went out of the
room, stepping quickly in her patched shoes. She soon came back
with a boy of two in her arms, who threw himself backwards and
grabbed at her shawl with his little hands.
'Where was I? Oh yes, he had a good appointment here, and his
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: encouraged him in his conversion--where he knew two things would happen:
the genuineness of the letter would not be doubted or inquired into;
and the nub of it would be noticed, and would have valuable effect--
the effect, indeed, of starting a movement to get Mr. Williams pardoned
out of prison.
That 'nub' is so ingeniously, so casually, flung in, and immediately
left there in the tail of the letter, undwelt upon, that an indifferent
reader would never suspect that it was the heart and core of the epistle,
if he even took note of it at all, This is the 'nub'--
'i hope the warm weather is doing your lungs good--I WAS AFRAID
WHEN YOU WAS BLEEDING YOU WOULD DIE--give my respects,' etc.
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