| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: that was void of interest, never one that you could leave
unread without loss, never one that you would want to skip,
thinking you could find higher enjoyment in some other thing.
There never was so wonderful a book written by man; never one
whose interest was so absorbing, so unflagging, so sparkingly
renewed with every re-perusal. The passenger who could not read it
was charmed with a peculiar sort of faint dimple on its surface
(on the rare occasions when he did not overlook it altogether);
but to the pilot that was an ITALICIZED passage; indeed, it was
more than that, it was a legend of the largest capitals,
with a string of shouting exclamation points at the end of it;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: stones - I enclose you a photograph of one on Apemama - are
certainly connected with religion; I do not think they are adored.
They stand usually on the windward shore of the islands, that is to
say, apart from habitation (on ENCLOSED ISLANDS, where the people
live on the sea side, I do not know how it is, never having lived
on one). I gathered from Tembinoka, Rex Apemamae, that the pillars
were supposed to fortify the island from invasion: spiritual
martellos. I think he indicated they were connected with the cult
of Tenti - pronounce almost as chintz in English, the T being
explosive; but you must take this with a grain of salt, for I knew
no word of Gilbert Island; and the King's English, although
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: acquired--keen perceptions, self-command, a nimble wit, rapid
judgment, decisiveness, and, what is the genius of these men,
fertility in resource.
By the time when Marcas thought himself duly equipped, France was torn
by intestine divisions arising from the triumph of the House of
Orleans over the elder branch of the Bourbons.
The field of political warfare is evidently changed. Civil war
henceforth cannot last for long, and will not be fought out in the
provinces. In France such struggles will be of brief duration and at
the seat of government; and the battle will be the close of the moral
contest which will have been brought to an issue by superior minds.
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