| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: he had been so lonesome, and it was such a comfort to him
to have company, and somebody to talk to in his troubles.
We was in a sweat to find out what his secret was,
but Tom said the best way was not to seem anxious,
then likely he would drop into it himself in one of
his talks, but if we got to asking questions he would get
suspicious and shet up his shell. It turned out just so.
It warn't no trouble to see that he WANTED to talk about it,
but always along at first he would scare away from it
when he got on the very edge of it, and go to talking
about something else. The way it come about was this:
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: The financial crisis of 1827 sent them down; after the Revolution of
July they fell flat; but there really is something in the affair,
Nucingen simply could not invent a bad speculation. In short, as
several banks of the highest standing have been mixed up in the
affair, it would be unparliamentary to go further into detail. The
nominal capital amounted to ten millions; the real capital to seven.
Three millions were allotted to the founders and bankers that brought
it out. Everything was done with a view to sending up the shares two
hundred francs during the first six months by the payment of a sham
dividend. Twenty per cent, on ten millions! Du Tillet's interest in
the concern amounted to five hundred thousand francs. In the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: inspired by the God. The poets and their interpreters may be compared to a
chain of magnetic rings suspended from one another, and from a magnet. The
magnet is the Muse, and the ring which immediately follows is the poet
himself; from him are suspended other poets; there is also a chain of
rhapsodes and actors, who also hang from the Muses, but are let down at the
side; and the last ring of all is the spectator. The poet is the inspired
interpreter of the God, and this is the reason why some poets, like Homer,
are restricted to a single theme, or, like Tynnichus, are famous for a
single poem; and the rhapsode is the inspired interpreter of the poet, and
for a similar reason some rhapsodes, like Ion, are the interpreters of
single poets.
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