| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: Captain Davie, humorously known as Gentle Johnnie. The captain had
earned this name by his style of discipline, which would have
figured well in the pages of Marryat: 'Put the prisoner's head in
a bag and give him another dozen!' survives as a specimen of his
commands; and the men were often punished twice or thrice in a
week. On board the ship of this disciplinarian, Charles and his
father were carried in a billy-boat from Sheerness in December,
1816: Charles with an outfit suitable to his pretensions, a
twenty-guinea sextant and 120 dollars in silver, which were ordered
into the care of the gunner. 'The old clerks and mates,' he
writes, 'used to laugh and jeer me for joining the ship in a billy-
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: believe I've gone a bit adrift. Your fire-eater, you know--she is an
extraordinary woman!" And Beverly gave his mellow, little humorous
chuckle. "Hanged if I don't begin to think she does fancy him."
"Well!" I cried, "that would explain--no, it wouldn't. Whence comes your
theory?"
"Saw her look at him at dinner once last night. We dined with some
people--Cornerly. She looked at him just once. Well, if she intends--by
gad, it upsets one's whole notion of her!"
"Isn't just one look rather slight basis for--"
"Now, old man, you know better than that!" Beverly paused to chuckle. "My
grandmother Livingston," he resumed, "knew Aaron Burr, and she used to
say that he had an eye which no honest woman could meet without a blush.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: This was my principal reason for not enlightening Dr. Cleeve.
Even walls have ears where Fu-Manchu is concerned, so I feigned
ignorance of the meaning of the mark, knowing that he would be
almost certain to employ the same methods upon some other victim.
I wanted an opportunity to study the Zayat Kiss in operation,
and I shall have one."
"But the scented envelopes?"
"In the swampy forests of the district I have referred to a rare
species of orchid, almost green, and with a peculiar scent,
is sometimes met with. I recognized the heavy perfume at once.
I take it that the thing which kills the traveler is attracted
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
