| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: any more; they've gone where the woodbine twineth--and they didn't go
by steamboat, either; went by the train.'
Up in this region we met massed acres of lumber rafts coming down--
but not floating leisurely along, in the old-fashioned way,
manned with joyous and reckless crews of fiddling,
song-singing, whiskey-drinking, breakdown-dancing rapscallions;
no, the whole thing was shoved swiftly along by a powerful
stern-wheeler, modern fashion, and the small crews were quiet,
orderly men, of a sedate business aspect, with not a suggestion
of romance about them anywhere.
Along here, somewhere, on a black night, we ran some exceedingly
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: about sixty paces on each side of the gate of the hotel; - the man
was about fifty-two - had a small cane under his arm - was dress'd
in a dark drab-colour'd coat, waistcoat, and breeches, which seem'd
to have seen some years service: - they were still clean, and there
was a little air of frugal PROPRETE throughout him. By his pulling
off his hat, and his attitude of accosting a good many in his way,
I saw he was asking charity: so I got a sous or two out of my
pocket ready to give him, as he took me in his turn. - He pass'd by
me without asking anything - and yet did not go five steps further
before he ask'd charity of a little woman. - I was much more likely
to have given of the two. - He had scarce done with the woman, when
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: of the prodigal son; and let me remind you where - in his own
father's house! Come, sit ye down, and drink another glass with
Mr. Bally."
"Ay, ay, Mr. Mackellar," says my lord, "we must not make a stranger
either of him or you. I have been telling my son," he added, his
voice brightening as usual on the word, "how much we valued all
your friendly service."
So I sat there, silent, till my usual hour; and might have been
almost deceived in the man's nature but for one passage, in which
his perfidy appeared too plain. Here was the passage; of which,
after what he knows of the brothers' meeting, the reader shall
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