| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: The difference in natural "fact" which most of us would assign as
the first difference which the existence of a God ought to make
would, I imagine, be personal immortality. Religion, in fact, for
the great majority of our own race MEANS immortality, and nothing
else. God is the producer of immortality; and whoever has doubts
of immortality is written down as an atheist without farther
trial. I have said nothing in my lectures about immortality or
the belief therein, for to me it seems a secondary point. If our
ideals are only cared for in "eternity," I do not see why we
might not be willing to resign their care to other hands than
ours. Yet I sympathize with the urgent impulse to be present
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: But enough of his body stays behind to spot and stain the sheets
with the blood which has fallen from his fingers. Full of sighs
and tears, Lancelot leaves in great distress. He grieves that no
time is fixed for another meeting, but it cannot be. Regretfully
he leaves by the window through which he had entered so happily.
He was so badly wounded in the fingers that they were in sorry,
state; yet he straightened the bars and set them in their place
again, so that from neither side, either before or behind, was it
evident that any one had drawn out or bent any of the bars. When
he leaves the room, he bows and acts precisely as if he were
before a shrine; then he goes with a heavy heart, and reaches his
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: flippant announcement to the Assembly on Monday morning.
He shook off the mood, angry with himself for entertaining it.
It was maudlin. After all Chabrillane and La Motte-Royau were
quite exceptional swordsmen, but neither of them really approached
his own formidable calibre. Reaction began to flow, as he drove
out through country lanes flooded with pleasant September sunshine.
His spirits rose. A premonition of victory stirred within him
Far from fearing Monday's meeting, as he had so unreasonably been
doing; he began to look forward to it. It should afford him the
means of setting a definite term to this persecution of which he
had been the victim. He would crush this insolent and persistent
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