| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: however, especially among the older men. Some can
handle the Colts 45 and its heavy recoil with almost
uncanny accuracy. I have seen individuals who could
from their saddles nip lizards darting across the road;
and one who was able to perforate twice before it hit
the ground a tomato-can tossed into the air. The
cowboy is prejudiced against the double-action gun,
for some reason or other. He manipulates his
single-action weapon fast enough, however.
His sense of humor takes the same unexpected
slants, not because his mental processes differ from
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: that henceforth he will not come again, and thine heart is
ever slow to believe, therefore will I tell thee not
lightly but with an oath, that Odysseus shall return. And
let me have the wages of good tidings as soon as ever he in
his journeying shall come hither to his home. Then clothe
me in a mantle and a doublet, goodly raiment. But ere that,
albeit I am sore in need I will not take aught, for hateful
to me even as the gates of hell, is that man, who under
stress of poverty speaks words of guile. Now be Zeus my
witness before any god, and the hospitable board and the
hearth of noble Odysseus whereunto I am come, that all
 The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: latitude too well to allow himself to be captured by a young corvette,
one fine morning Paris drawing-rooms heard the news of the marriage of
Mademoiselle de Fontaine to the Comte de Kergarouet. The young
Countess gave splendid entertainments to drown thought; but she, no
doubt, found a void at the bottom of the whirlpool; luxury was
ineffectual to disguise the emptiness and grief of her sorrowing soul;
for the most part, in spite of the flashes of assumed gaiety, her
beautiful face expressed unspoken melancholy. Emilie appeared,
however, full of attentions and consideration for her old husband,
who, on retiring to his rooms at night, to the sounds of a lively
band, would often say, "I do not know myself. Was I to wait till the
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