| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: alleys. The way is so narrow that you can lay a hand on
either wall; so steep that, in greasy winter weather, the
pavement is almost as treacherous as ice. Washing
dangles above washing from the windows; the houses bulge
outwards upon flimsy brackets; you see a bit of sculpture
in a dark corner; at the top of all, a gable and a few
crowsteps are printed on the sky. Here, you come into a
court where the children are at play and the grown people
sit upon their doorsteps, and perhaps a church spire
shows itself above the roofs. Here, in the narrowest of
the entry, you find a great old mansion still erect, with
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: their money, vaudevillists have incomes. A few rare beings may remain
what they originally were, but professions in general have no longer
either their special costume or their formerly fixed habits and ways.
In the past we had Gobseck, Gigounet, Samonon,--the last of the
Romans; to-day we rejoice in Vauvinet, the good-fellow usurer, the
dandy who frequents the greenroom and the lorettes, and drives about
in a little coupe with one horse. Take special note of my man, friend
Gazonal, and you'll see the comedy of money, the cold man who won't
give a penny, the hot man who snuffs a profit; listen to him
attentively!"
All three went up to the second floor of a fine-looking house on the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: my conscience, but It would not be; for the concupiscence and
lust of my flesh did always return, so that I could not rest, but
was continually vexed with these thoughts: This or that sin thou
hast committed: thou art infected with envy, with impatiency,
and such other sins: therefore thou art entered into this holy
order in vain, and all thy good works are unprofitable. But if
then I had rightly understood these sentences of Paul: 'The
flesh lusteth contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit contrary to
the flesh; and these two are one against another, so that ye
cannot do the things that ye would do,' I should not have so
miserably tormented myself, but should have thought and said to
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