| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: a last look at a work of art that was passing out of his
possession.
On the whole, he knew no one better fitted to deal with the
unexpected than Mrs. Vervain. She excelled in the rare art of
taking things for granted, and Thursdale felt a pardonable pride
in the thought that she owed her excellence to his training.
Early in his career Thursdale had made the mistake, at the outset
of his acquaintance with a lady, of telling her that he loved her
and exacting the same avowal in return. The latter part of that
episode had been like the long walk back from a picnic, when one
has to carry all the crockery one has finished using: it was the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: as if they had been afraid and daunted. At this time, Alcibiades,
who was in his castle in the Chersonese, came on horseback to the
Athenian army, and found fault with their captains, first of all that
they had pitched their camp neither well nor safely, on an exposed
and open beach, a very bad landing for the ships, and, secondly, that
where they were, they had to fetch all they wanted from Sestos, some
considerable way off; whereas if they sailed round a little way to
the town and harbor of Sestos, they would be at a safer distance from
an enemy, who lay watching their movements, at the command of a
single general, terror of whom made every order rapidly executed.
This advice, however, they would not listen to; and Tydeus angered
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: then the sound of horses going down stony ways. ``O God
of the poor!'' cried the gaunt woman. ``How are we
robbed!''
``Why are they not before Granada?'' demanded the
lawyer and alertly provided the answer to his own question.
``Take locusts and give them leave to eat, being careful to
say, `This fellow's fields only!' But the locusts have wings
and their nature is to eat!''
The mountain robbers, if robbers they were, dined quietly,
the gaunt woman promptly and painstakingly serving them.
They were going to pay, I was sure, though it might not be
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