| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: During the winter of 1833, when society rallied after the revolution
of July, some salons, notably those of Mesdames d'Espard and de
Listomere, Mademoiselle des Touches, and the Duchesse de Grandlieu,
had selected certain of the celebrities in art, science, literature,
and politics, and received them. Society can lose nothing of its
rights, and it must be amused. At a concert given by Madame de
Montcornet toward the close of the winter of 1833, a man of rising
fame in literature and politics appeared in her salon, brought there
by one of the wittiest, but also one of the laziest writers of that
epoch, Emile Blondet, celebrated behind closed doors, highly praised
by journalists, but unknown beyond the barriers. Blondet himself was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: strength soon failed her. She heard the sound of the snow crunching
under a heavy step, and knew that the pitiless spy was on her track.
She was obliged to stop. He stopped likewise. From sheer terror, or
lack of intelligence, she did not dare to speak or to look at him. She
went slowly on; the man slackened his pace and fell behind so that he
could still keep her in sight. He might have been her very shadow.
Nine o'clock struck as the silent man and woman passed again by the
Church of Saint Laurent. It is in the nature of things that calm must
succeed to violent agitation, even in the weakest soul; for if feeling
is infinite, our capacity to feel is limited. So, as the stranger lady
met with no harm from her supposed persecutor, she tried to look upon
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: lip of the entrance. The next moment there came up
from below a howl of rage. There was no need to look.
We knew the voice only too well. The rubbish had
descended upon Red-Eye.
We crouched down in the cave in consternation. A
minute later he was at the entrance, peering in at us
with his inflamed eyes and raging like a demon. But he
was too large. He could not get in to us. Suddenly he
went away. This was suspicious. By all we knew of
Folk nature he should have remained and had out his
rage. I crept to the entrance and peeped down. I could
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