| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: shrill voices of mirth or terror.
"The double-faced fellow has his eye upon me," muttered Robin,
with an indefinite but an uncomfortable idea that he was himself
to bear a part in the pageantry.
The leader turned himself in the saddle, and fixed his glance
full upon the country youth, as the steed went slowly by. When
Robin had freed his eyes from those fiery ones, the musicians
were passing before him, and the torches were close at hand; but
the unsteady brightness of the latter formed a veil which he
could not penetrate. The rattling of wheels over the stones
sometimes found its way to his ear, and confused traces of a
 The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: Brighter grew the golden light, gayer sang the birds, and the
harmonious voices of grateful flowers, sounding over the earth,
carried new joy to all their gentle kindred.
Brighter shone the golden shadows;
On the cool wind softly came
The low, sweet tones of happy flowers,
Singing little Violet's name.
'Mong the green trees was it whispered,
And the bright waves bore it on
To the lonely forest flowers,
Where the glad news had not gone.
 Flower Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: dispositions of Hippolyte's property, and with the murder of
Auguste Ballet. The three charges were to be tried
simultaneously. The Act of Accusation in Castaing's case is a
remarkable document, covering a hundred closely-printed pages.
It is a well-reasoned, graphic and unfair statement of the case
for the prosecution. It tells the whole story of the crime, and
inserts everything that can possibly prejudice the prisoner in
the eyes of the jury. As an example, it quotes against Castaing
a letter of his mistress in which, in the course of some quarrel,
she had written to him saying that his mother had said some
"horrible things" (des horreurs) of him; but what those
 A Book of Remarkable Criminals |