| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: the better seems the chance; until, if we be acting in
concert with a whole civilised nation, there are surely a
majority of chances that we must be acting right. And again,
how true it is that we can never behave as we wish in this
tormented sphere, and can only aspire to different and more
favourable circumstances, in order to stand out and be
ourselves wholly and rightly! And yet once more, if in the
hurry and pressure of affairs and passions you tend to nod
and become drowsy, here are twenty-four hours of Sunday set
apart for you to hold counsel with your soul and look around
you on the possibilities of life.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: province, as a member of the Lunch Club, was the Book of the Day.
On that, whatever it was, from a novel to a treatise on
experimental psychology, she was confidently, authoritatively
"up." What became of last year's books, or last week's even;
what she did with the "subjects" she had previously professed
with equal authority; no one had ever yet discovered. Her mind
was an hotel where facts came and went like transient lodgers,
without leaving their address behind, and frequently without
paying for their board. It was Mrs. Ballinger's boast that she
was "abreast with the Thought of the Day," and her pride that
this advanced position should be expressed by the books on her
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: much courage as he had caught him in the water and just as few clothes,
only it was so different. Richard makes it quite thrilling. And I
mentioned another to him. But he just went on shaving. And now he has gone
out walking, and I believe it's going to be something I would rather not
hear. But I mean to hear it."
At lunch Mrs. Field made a better meal, although it was clear to Mrs.
Davenport that Richard on returning from his walk had still kept his
intentions from Ethel. "She does not manage him in the least," Mrs.
Davenport declared to the other ladies, as Ethel and Richard started for
an afternoon drive together. "She will not know anything more when she
brings him back."
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