| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: it gave me the measure of her consummate independence. That
independence rested on her knowledge, the knowledge which nothing
now could destroy and which nothing could make different. The
figure in the carpet might take on another twist or two, but the
sentence had virtually been written. The writer might go down to
his grave: she was the person in the world to whom - as if she had
been his favoured heir - his continued existence was least of a
need. This reminded me how I had observed at a particular moment -
after Corvick's death - the drop of her desire to see him face to
face. She had got what she wanted without that. I had been sure
that if she hadn't got it she wouldn't have been restrained from
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: food; but for that I would soon have been myself again, for, though
my wounds were numerous, they were little more than scratches, with
the exception of the gash on my shoulder. Weakened as I was by
loss of blood, and lacking nourishment, I improved but slowly, and
only the cold water kept the fever from me.
Twice Harry went out in search of food and of an exit from the
cavern. The first time he was away for several hours, and returned
exhausted and empty-handed and without having found any exit other
than the one by which we had entered.
He had ventured through that far enough to see a group of
Incas on watch at the other end. They had seen him and sprung
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: "He is two things of price. He is a great lawyer, and he is upright as
the day."
"You and he are so different," said the boy, his eyes dwelling on those
of his old friend, like a lover's on his mistress's.
"Indeed so," replied the judge; "very different. And so I fear are you
and he. Yet I would like it very ill if my young friend were to
misjudge his father. He has all the Roman virtues: Cato and Brutus were
such; I think a son's heart might well be proud of such an ancestry of
one."
"And I would sooner he were a plaided herd," cried Archie, with sudden
bitterness.
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