| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: for allowing my mind to dwell on such matters.
Once more my glances for'ard were casual, and not anxious; and
then, suddenly, I was a madman, rushing wildly aft. I had seen
the thing again, the long, wavering attenuated substance through
which could be seen the fore-rigging. This time I had reached
only the break of the poop when I checked myself. Again I
reasoned over the situation, and it was pride that counselled
strongest. I could not afford to make myself a laughing-stock.
This thing, whatever it was, I must face alone. I must work it
out myself. I looked back to the spot where we had tilted the
Bricklayer. It was vacant. Nothing moved. And for a third time
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: satisfaction of Walter Scott's Jew in swindling a Christian.
Fougeres marched along the boulevard in a state of joy which gave to
his honest face an expression of pride. He was like a schoolboy
protecting a woman. He met Joseph Bridau, one of his comrades, and one
of those eccentric geniuses destined to fame and sorrow. Joseph
Bridau, who had, to use his own expression, a few sous in his pocket,
took Fougeres to the Opera. But Fougeres didn't see the ballet, didn't
hear the music; he was imagining pictures, he was painting. He left
Joseph in the middle of the evening, and ran home to make sketches by
lamp-light. He invented thirty pictures, all reminiscence, and felt
himself a man of genius. The next day he bought colors, and canvases
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: wanted for anything, had never even heard this problem in the
rule of three: A young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is
to X.--These gilded idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt?
Why did you involve yourself in such onerous obligations?' They
remind me of the princess who, on hearing that the people lacked
bread, said, 'Why do not they buy cakes?' I should like to see
one of these rich men, who complain that I charge too much for an
operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone in Paris without
a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to work with
his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would he
go to satisfy his hunger?
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