| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: And they are, I may tell you, just like the tools of flint, or of
obsidian, which is volcanic glass, and which savages use still
where they have not iron. There is a great obsidian knife, you
know, in a house in this very parish, which came from Mexico; and
your eye can tell you how like it is to these flint ones. But
these flint tools are very old. If you crack a fresh flint, you
will see that its surface is gray, and somewhat rough, so that it
sticks to your tongue. These tools are smooth and shiny: and the
edges of some of them are a little rubbed from being washed about
in gravel; while the iron in the gravel has stained them reddish,
which it would take hundreds and perhaps thousands of years to do.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: people who ingratiate themselves into the Court set, and people
neither rich nor belonging to the Court but who ingratiate
themselves into the first and second sets.
Kasatsky did not belong to the first two sets, but was readily
welcomed in the others. On entering society he determined to
have relations with some society lady, and to his own surprise
quickly accomplished this purpose. He soon realized, however,
that the circles in which he moved were not the highest, and that
though he was received in the highest spheres he did not belong
to them. They were polite to him, but showed by their whole
manner that they had their own set and that he was not of it.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: course, language. Her eldest son, christened Washington by his
parents in a moment of patriotism, which he never ceased to regret,
was a fair-haired, rather good-looking young man, who had qualified
himself for American diplomacy by leading the German at the Newport
Casino for three successive seasons, and even in London was well
known as an excellent dancer. Gardenias and the peerage were his
only weaknesses. Otherwise he was extremely sensible. Miss
Virginia E. Otis was a little girl of fifteen, lithe and lovely as
a fawn, and with a fine freedom in her large blue eyes. She was a
wonderful amazon, and had once raced old Lord Bilton on her pony
twice round the park, winning by a length and a half, just in front
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