The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: bridge defended by three batteries of cannon, one above another, on a
sort of cliff; three redoubts like three shelves, and commanding the
bridge. We were under Marshal Massena. That man whom you see there was
Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and I was one of them. Our columns
held one bank of the river, the batteries were on the other. Three
times they tried for the bridge, and three times they were driven
back. 'Go and find Hulot!' said the Marshal; 'nobody but he and his
men can bolt that morsel.' So we came. The General, who was just
retiring from the bridge, stopped Hulot under fire, to tell him how to
do it, and he was in the way. 'I don't want advice, but room to pass,'
said our General coolly, marching across at the head of his men. And
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: made some years past, because I would offer nothing to the world
of which I am not as fully satisfied, as that I am now alive. For
these two last years I have not failed in above one or two
particulars, and those of no very great moment. I exactly
foretold the miscarriage at Toulon, with all its particulars; and
the loss of Admiral Shovel, tho' I was mistaken as to the day,
placing that accident about thirty-six hours sooner than it
happen'd; but upon reviewing my schemes, I quickly found the
cause of that error. I likewise foretold the Battle of Almanza to
the very day and hour, with the loss on both sides, and the
consequences thereof. All which I shewed to some friends many
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: with them a good deal and danced with them, but he never succeeded
in detaching them from each other for any length of time.
Women said that the two girls kept together through deep mistrust,
each fearing that the other would steal a march on her. But that
has nothing to do with a man. Saumarez was silent for good or bad,
and as business-likely attentive as he could be, having due regard
to his work and his polo. Beyond doubt both girls were fond of
him.
As the hot weather drew nearer, and Saumarez made no sign, women
said that you could see their trouble in the eyes of the girls--
that they were looking strained, anxious, and irritable. Men are
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