| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: sheet) under the compelling spell of wizard Pinkerton. Dollars
of mine were tacking off the shores of Mexico, in peril of the
deep and the guarda-costas; they rang on saloon-counters in the
city of Tombstone, Arizona; they shone in faro-tents among the
mountain diggings; the imagination flagged in following them,
so wide were they diffused, so briskly they span to the turning
of the wizard's crank. But here, there, or everywhere I could
still tell myself it was all mine, and what was more convincing,
draw substantial dividends. My fortune, I called it; and it
represented, when expressed in dollars, or even British pounds,
an honest pot of money; when extended into francs, a veritable
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: crowded around him. His helplessness appealed to the brutes.
They felt that something was wrong, though they knew not what, and
they crowded about, howling their mournful sympathy.
"Chook! Mush-on! you Siwashes!" he cried, attempting, in a
vermicular way, to kick at them, and discovering himself to be
tottering on the edge of a declivity. As soon as the animals had
scattered, he devoted himself to the significance of that
declivity which he felt to be there but could not see. Nor was he
long in arriving at a correct conclusion. In the nature of
things, he figured, man is lazy. He does no more than he has to.
When he builds a cabin he must put dirt on the roof. From these
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: following:--
510. Grassou de Fougeres (Pierre), rue de Navarin, 2.
Death-toilet of a Chouan, condemned to execution in 1809.
Though wholly second-rate, the picture had immense success, for it
recalled the affair of the "chauffeurs," of Mortagne. A crowd
collected every day before the now fashionable canvas; even Charles X.
paused to look at it. "Madame," being told of the patient life of the
poor Breton, became enthusiastic over him. The Duc d'Orleans asked the
price of the picture. The clergy told Madame la Dauphine that the
subject was suggestive of good thoughts; and there was, in truth, a
most satisfying religious tone about it. Monseigneur the Dauphin
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