| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: the bench. "I want to talk to you."
"Now, I've done something wrong," she pouted. She gathered up
her garlands and brought them to a place near his feet, ignoring
the seat at his side. "You might just as well tell me and get it
over."
"You couldn't do anything wrong," he answered, looking down at
her.
"Oh, yes, I could--and I've done it--I can see it in your face.
What is it?"
"What have you there?" he asked, trying to gain time, and not
knowing how to broach the subject that in justice to her must be
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: incipient disease, he, who was doing so much more than he had
sworn, failed in the letter of his priestly oath - he, who was so
much a better man than either you or me, who did what we have never
dreamed of daring - he too tasted of our common frailty. "O, Iago,
the pity of it!" The least tender should be moved to tears; the
most incredulous to prayer. And all that you could do was to pen
your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage!
Is it growing at all clear to you what a picture you have drawn of
your own heart? I will try yet once again to make it clearer. You
had a father: suppose this tale were about him, and some informant
brought it to you, proof in hand: I am not making too high an
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: heaven. "Speak, Monsieur Fontanon."
"For seven years Monsieur Granville has lived in sin with a concubine,
by whom he has two children; and on this adulterous connection he has
spent more than five hundred thousand francs, which ought to have been
the property of his legitimate family."
"I must see it to believe it!" cried the Countess.
"Far be it from you!" exclaimed the Abbe. "You must forgive, my
daughter, and wait in patience and prayer till God enlightens your
husband; unless, indeed, you choose to adopt against him the means
offered you by human laws."
The long conversation that ensued between the priest and his penitent
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