| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: informed both of the roads and inhabitants, that there were no fewer
than nine nations between us and Abyssinia, who were always
embroiled amongst themselves, or at war with the Abyssins, and
enjoyed no security even in their own territories. We were now
convinced that our enterprise was impracticable, and that to hazard
ourselves amidst so many insurmountable difficulties would be to
tempt Providence; despairing, therefore, that I should ever come
this way to Abyssinia, I resolved to return back with my
intelligence to my companion, whom I had left at Pate.
I cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of
their manner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: graceful figure; the deep gray eyes, too small for beauty; the
clear-cut features, the delicate, sensitive lips, close shaven now,
as they had been hairless then,--all were as I remembered them.
But the face was paler and thinner than it had been, and there were
lines round the eyes and at the corners of the mouth which were no
more natural to twenty-five than they would have been to twenty.
The old charm indeed--the sweet friendliness of manner, which was
his own peculiar possession--was still there. He talked and
laughed almost as much as formerly, but the talk was manufactured
for our entertainment, and the laughter came from his head and not
from his heart. And it was when he was taking no part in the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: passed entirely in the preparation of prospectuses. The pioneer
of McBride City was already upright and self-reliant as of yore;
the fire rekindled in his eye, the ring restored to his voice; a
charger sniffing battle and saying ha-ha, among the spears. On
the seventh morning we signed a deed of partnership, for Jim
would not accept a dollar of my money otherwise; and having
once more engaged myself--or that mortal part of me, my
purse--among the wheels of his machinery, I returned alone to
San Francisco and took quarters in the Palace Hotel.
The same night I had Nares to dinner. His sunburnt face, his
queer and personal strain of talk, recalled days that were scarce
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