| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: "I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying
for me the case of instruments mounted in silver which you have
seen in my room, and which is to me the most precious thing
there. Though enchanted with my first success, never did the
least sign, the least word, escape him which might imply, 'This
man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, I should have died of
want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I might have
coffee to enable me to sit up at night.
"He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his
bedside, and the first time I pulled him through; but two years
after he had a relapse; in spite of the utmost care, in spite of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: her head. "This is the night we're goin' to make them rubes in
there sit up, ain't it, Bingo?" she added, placing one arm
affectionately about the neck of the big, white horse that stood
waiting near the entrance.
"You bin ridin' too reckless lately," said Jim, sternly, as he
followed her. "I don't like it. There ain't no need of your
puttin' in all them extra stunts. Your act is good enough
without 'em. Nobody else ever done 'em, an' nobody'd miss 'em if
you left 'em out."
Polly turned with a triumphant ring in her voice. The music was
swelling for her entrance.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: "You promised to marry me when I had three hundred a year."
She was silent for a space. "Can't we go on for a time as we
are? We COULD marry on three hundred a year. But it means a
very little house. There's Smithie's brother. They manage on
two hundred and fifty, but that's very little. She says they
have a semi-detached house almost on the road, and hardly a bit
of garden. And the wall to next-door is so thin they hear
everything. When her baby cries--they rap. And people stand
against the railings and talk.... Can't we wait? You're doing so
well."
An extraordinary bitterness possessed me at this invasion of the
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