| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: the influence the Church was beginning to exercise
on society, and he told all his friends how his son
had been insulted by the priest.
Seeing not only young minds, but also the elder
generation, contaminated by atheistic tendencies,
Father Michael became more and more convinced
of the necessity of fighting those tendencies. The
more he condemned the unbelief of Smokovnikov,
and those like him, the more confident he grew
in the firmness of his own faith, and the less he
felt the need of making sure of it, or of bringing
The Forged Coupon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: merchant, submitted with wonderful courage to the minute questioning
and stupid, or frivolous, comments of her visitors. At every rap upon
her door, every footfall echoing in the street, she hid her emotions
by starting topics relating to the interests of the town, and she
raised such a lively discussion on the quality of ciders, which was
ably seconded by the old merchant, that the company almost forgot to
watch her, finding her countenance quite natural, and her composure
imperturbable. The public prosecutor and one of the judges of the
revolutionary tribunal was taciturn, observing attentively every
change in her face; every now and then they addressed her some
embarrassing question, to which, however, the countess answered with
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Poems by Bronte Sisters: But, with firm foot and tranquil face,
Held backward from that tempting race,
Gazed o'er the sands the waves efface,
To the enduring seas--
There cast my anchor of desire
Deep in unknown eternity;
Nor ever let my spirit tire,
With looking for WHAT IS TO BE!
"It is hope's spell that glorifies,
Like youth, to my maturer eyes,
All Nature's million mysteries,
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