| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: was a show, as he calls it.
JESSAMY
As ignorant and unpolished as he is, do you know,
Miss Jenny, that I propose to introduce him to the
honour of your acquaintance?
JENNY
Introduce him to me! for what?
JESSAMY
Why, my lovely girl, that you may take him under
your protection, as Madame Ramboulliet did young
Stanhope; that you may, by your plastic hand, mould
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: certainly enough for the primitive myth-teller.[46] Sometimes
the pinnate shape of a leaf, the forking of a branch, the
tri-cleft corolla, or even the red colour of a flower, seems
to have been sufficient to determine the association of ideas.
The Hindu commentators of the Veda certainly lay great stress
on the fact that the palasa, one of their lightning-trees, is
trident-leaved. The mistletoe branch is forked, like a
wish-bone,[47] and so is the stem which bears the
forget-me-not or wild scorpion grass. So too the leaves of the
Hindu ficus religiosa resemble long spear-heads.[48] But in
many cases it is impossible for us to determine with
 Myths and Myth-Makers |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: unless into the country, she was bent on being present at the first
performance of a play by Nathan. This literary solemnity occupied the
minds of the two thousand persons who regard themselves as
constituting "all Paris." Dinah, who had never been at a first night's
performance, was very full of natural curiosity. She had by this time
arrived at such a pitch of affection for Lousteau that she gloried in
her misconduct; she exerted a sort of savage strength to defy the
world; she was determined to look it in the face without turning her
head aside.
She dressed herself to perfection, in a style suited to her delicate
looks and the sickly whiteness of her face. Her pallid complexion gave
 The Muse of the Department |