| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: knife, the colour in some parts excellent, the canvas in others
loaded with mere clay. But it was the scene, and not the art or
want of it, that riveted my notice. The foreground was of sand
and scrub and wreckwood; in the middle distance the many-
hued and smooth expanse of a lagoon, enclosed by a wall of
breakers; beyond, a blue strip of ocean. The sky was cloudless,
and I could hear the surf break. For the place was Midway
Island; the point of view the very spot at which I had landed
with the captain for the first time, and from which I had
re-embarked the day before we sailed. I had already been
gazing for some seconds, before my attention was arrested by a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: Why have I put off my pride,
Why am I unsatisfied, --
I, for whom the pensive night
Binds her cloudy hair with light, --
I, for whom all beauty burns
Like incense in a million urns?
O beauty, are you not enough?
Why am I crying after love?
May Wind
I said, "I have shut my heart
As one shuts an open door,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: In his armor of tenderness, riveted by the knowledge of so many
splendid virtues, d'Arthez obeyed this behest on the following day and
went to see Madame d'Espard, who received him with charming coquetry.
The marquise took very good care not to say a single word to him about
the princess, but she asked him to dinner on a coming day.
On this occasion d'Arthez found a numerous company. The marquise had
invited Rastignac, Blondet, the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de
Trailles, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, the two brothers Vandenesse, du
Tillet, one of the richest bankers in Paris, the Baron de Nucingen,
Raoul Nathan, Lady Dudley, two very treacherous secretaries of
embassies and the Chevalier d'Espard, the wiliest person in this
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