| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: I know him only as he looks to me,
I know him, -- and I tell Francesca so.
And what of Nimmo? Little would you ask
Of him, could you but see him as I can,
At his bewildered and unfruitful task
Of being what he was born to be -- a man.
Better forget that I said anything
Of what your tortured memory may disclose;
I know him, and your worst remembering
Would count as much as nothing, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I trust him; and I know his way
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: active the mind. Rastignac finally got up, without yawning over-much
as many ill-bred persons are apt to do. He rang for his valet, ordered
tea, and drank immoderately of it when it came; which will not seem
extraordinary to persons who like tea; but to explain the circumstance
to others, who regard that beverage as a panacea for indigestion, I
will add that Eugene was, by this time, writing letters. He was
comfortably seated, with his feet more frequently on the andirons
than, properly, on the rug. Ah! to have one's feet on the polished bar
which connects the two griffins of a fender, and to think of our love
in our dressing-gown is so delightful a thing that I deeply regret the
fact of having neither mistress, nor fender, nor dressing-gown.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: with himself from the moment of their birth. Am I to call it a
proof of God's mercy or a visitation of his wrath, that man in
certain states appears to be insensible to his extreme
wretchedness, and almost affects, with a depraved taste, the
cause of his misfortunes? The negro, who is plunged in this
abyss of evils, scarcely feels his own calamitous situation.
Violence made him a slave, and the habit of servitude gives him
the thoughts and desires of a slave; he admires his tyrants more
than he hates them, and finds his joy and his pride in the
servile imitation of those who oppress him: his understanding is
degraded to the level of his soul.
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