The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: the same -- labyrinth under labyrinth, and no end to
any of them. No man "knew" the cave. That was
an impossible thing. Most of the young men knew a
portion of it, and it was not customary to venture much
beyond this known portion. Tom Sawyer knew as
much of the cave as any one.
The procession moved along the main avenue
some three-quarters of a mile, and then groups and
couples began to slip aside into branch avenues, fly
along the dismal corridors, and take each other by
surprise at points where the corridors joined again.
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: humour of all three seemed to declare they had attained their
end. Yet there was the other side to it; and the recipients
of kettles perhaps cared greatly.
No sooner had they returned, than the scene of yesterday
began again. The horses were not even tied with a straw rope
this time - it was not worth while; and Kelmar disappeared
into the bar, leaving them under a tree on the other side of
the road. I had to devote myself. I stood under the shadow
of that tree for, I suppose, hard upon an hour, and had not
the heart to be angry. Once some one remembered me, and
brought me out half a tumblerful of the playful, innocuous
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: heard him mentioned, I might profit by the circumstance to
introduce myself; and in this way my business would be the better
done, and you not in the least compromised.'
'What is this business?' said Romaine.
'I have not said that I had any,' I replied. 'It might arise.
This is only a possibility that I must keep in view.'
'Well,' said he, with a gesture of the hands, 'I mention Mr.
Robbie; and let that be an end of it! - Or wait!' he added, 'I have
it. Here is something that will serve you for an introduction, and
cannot compromise me.' And he wrote his name and the Edinburgh
lawyer's address on a piece of card and tossed it to me.
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