| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: offices needful and to visit the sick, as far as it was practicable; so
that, upon the whole, an allowance of charity might have been made
on both sides, and we should have considered that such a time as this
of 1665 is not to be paralleled in history, and that it is not the stoutest
courage that will always support men in such cases. I had not said
this, but had rather chosen to record the courage and religious zeal of
those of both sides, who did hazard themselves for the service of the
poor people in their distress, without remembering that any failed in
their duty on either side. But the want of temper among us has made
the contrary to this necessary: some that stayed not only boasting too
much of themselves, but reviling those that fled, branding them with
 A Journal of the Plague Year |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: About half-past twelve there came footsteps on the gravel without.
The old vicar and his churchwarden entered, and, coming up to see what was
being done, seemed surprised to discover that a young woman was assisting.
They passed on into an aisle, at which time the door again opened,
and another figure entered--a small one, that of little Time, who was crying.
Sue had told him where he might find her between school-hours, if
he wished. She came down from her perch, and said, "What's the matter,
my dear?"
"I couldn't stay to eat my dinner in school, because they said----"
He described how some boys had taunted him about his nominal mother,
and Sue, grieved, expressed her indignation to Jude aloft.
 Jude the Obscure |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7
The Hellenica 7
The Cyropaedia 8
The Memorabilia 4
The Symposium 1
The Economist 1
On Horsemanship 1
 Anabasis |