| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: resolved to play his part with honor to the last.
"The day before yesterday the Arabs would have killed me, perhaps," he
said; so considering himself as good as dead already, he waited
bravely, with excited curiosity, the awakening of his enemy.
When the sun appeared, the panther suddenly opened her eyes; then she
put out her paws with energy, as if to stretch them and get rid of
cramp. At last she yawned, showing the formidable apparatus of her
teeth and pointed tongue, rough as a file.
"A regular petite maitresse," thought the Frenchman, seeing her roll
herself about so softly and coquettishly. She licked off the blood
which stained her paws and muzzle, and scratched her head with
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: missionary of Protestants, and it is a testimony of what I have
often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilises
the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received,
whether it works saving effects upon them or no.
From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an
equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China
where our European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible,
not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country,
where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being
entirely ruined. Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we
resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; and
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: If the anniversaries of people are slightingly treated in the land
of the sunrise, the same cannot be said of plants. The yearly
birthdays of the vegetable world are observed with more than botanic
enthusiasm. The regard in which they are held is truly emotional,
and it not actually individual in its object, at least personal to
the species. Each kind of tree as its season brings it into flower
is made the occasion of a festival. For the beauty of the
blossoming receives the tribute of a national admiration.
From peers to populace mankind turns out to witness it. Nor are
these occasions few. Spring in the Far East is one long chain of
flower fetes, and as spring begins by the end of January and lasts
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