| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: none whose costume did not present some laughable singularity. But in
presence of such amusing sights the men themselves were grave and
gloomy. The silence was broken only by the snapping of the wood, the
crackling of the flames, the distant murmur of the camps, and the
blows of the sabre given to what remained of Bichette in search of her
tenderest morsels. A few miserable creatures, perhaps more weary than
the rest, were sleeping; when one of their number rolled into the fire
no one attempted to help him out. These stern logicians argued that if
he were not dead his burns would warn him to find a safer place. If
the poor wretch waked in the flames and perished, no one cared. Two or
three soldiers looked at each other to justify their own indifference
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: beautiful wings, and flown about, and laid such lots of eggs: and
now you have broken her door, and she can't mend it because her
mouth is tied up for a fortnight, and she will die. Who sent you
here to worry us out of our lives?"
So Tom swam away. He was very much ashamed of himself, and felt
all the naughtier; as little boys do when they have done wrong and
won't say so.
Then he came to a pool full of little trout, and began tormenting
them, and trying to catch them: but they slipped through his
fingers, and jumped clean out of water in their fright. But as Tom
chased them, he came close to a great dark hover under an alder
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: that the captain, after the first flush of his excitement was over,
was not without many misgivings.
The next day or two were spent in providing for the accommodation
of the new comer. Fortunately his desires were very moderate;
he seemed to live among the stars, and as long as he was
well provided with coffee, he cared little for luxuries,
and paid little or no regard to the ingenuity with which all
the internal arrangements of Nina's Hive had been devised.
Anxious to show all proper respect to his former tutor,
Servadac proposed to leave the most comfortable apartment of
the place at his disposal; but the professor resolutely declined
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