| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: first, dragging the lady by the arm, but at that instant he was pulled
vigorously into the street, and his wife was torn from him by a
stranger. The terrible hunchback saw at once that he had fallen into a
trap that was cleverly prepared. Repenting himself for having slept,
he collected his whole strength, seized his wife once more by the
sleeve of her gown, and strove with his other hand to cling to the
gate of the church; but the ardor of love carried the day against
jealous fury. The young man took his mistress round the waist, and
carried her off so rapidly, with the strength of despair, that the
brocaded stuff of silk and gold tore noisily apart, and the sleeve
alone remained in the hand of the old man. A roar like that of a lion
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: the waves of ocean rolling over what once had been the lovely
shores of Provence, he was well-nigh frantic with desperation.
"Am I to believe that Gourbi Island, that little shred of Algeria,
constitutes all that is left of our glorious France? No, no;
it cannot be. Not yet have we reached the pole of our new world.
There is--there must be--something more behind that frowning rock.
Oh, that for a moment we could scale its towering height and look beyond!
By Heaven, I adjure you, let us disembark, and mount the summit and explore!
France lies beyond."
Disembarkation, however, was an utter impossibility. There was no
semblance of a creek in which the _Dobryna_ could find an anchorage.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: the other apostles were told the same things. Let the scoffers slander us, let
them spare us not. But we must not on their account keep silent. We must
speak frankly in order that afflicted consciences may find surcease. Neither
are we to pay any attention to the foolish and ungodly people for abusing
our doctrine. They are the kind that would scoff, Law or no Law. Our first
consideration must be the comfort of troubled consciences, that they may
not perish with the multitudes.
When he saw that some were offended at his doctrine, while others found
in it encouragement to live after the flesh, Paul comforted himself with
the thought that it was his duty to preach the Gospel to the elect of God,
and that for their sake he must endure all things. Like Paul we also do all
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