| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: prompt enough with her remembrance that her grasp was, half the
time, just of what was NOT on the face. "Miss Dolman, Parade
Lodge, Parade Terrace, Dover. Let him instantly know right one,
Hotel de France, Ostend. Make it seven nine four nine six one.
Wire me alternative Burfield's."
The girl slowly counted. Then he was at Ostend. This hooked on
with so sharp a click that, not to feel she was as quickly letting
it all slip from her, she had absolutely to hold it a minute longer
and to do something to that end. Thus it was that she did on this
occasion what she never did--threw off a "Reply paid?" that sounded
officious, but that she partly made up for by deliberately affixing
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: [Enter King John.]
KING JOHN.
Come, Charles, and arm thee; Edward is entrapped,
The Prince of Wales is fallen into our hands,
And we have compassed him; he cannot escape.
CHARLES.
But will your highness fight to day?
KING JOHN.
What else, my son? he's scarce eight thousand strong,
And we are threescore thousand at the least.
CHARLES.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: to find verses of three. Five is the one forbidden number;
because five is the number of the feet; and if five were
chosen, the two patterns would coincide, and that opposition
which is the life of verse would instantly be lost. We have
here a clue to the effect of polysyllables, above all in
Latin, where they are so common and make so brave an
architecture in the verse; for the polysyllable is a group of
Nature's making. If but some Roman would return from Hades
(Martial, for choice), and tell me by what conduct of the
voice these thundering verses should be uttered - 'AUT
LACEDOE-MONIUM TARENTUM,' for a case in point - I feel as if
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