| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: even and well modulated--amaze in the handsome face usually so
indifferent. Her question had startled him. She saw him look
down the iron-gray cliffs, over the barren slopes and cedared
ridges, beyond the cactus-covered foothills to the grim and
ghastly desert. Just then, with its red veils of sunlit
dust-clouds, its illimitable waste of ruined and upheaved earth,
it was a sinister spectacle.
"No," he replied, with a tinge of shame in his cheek. Madeline
said no more, nor did he speak. She was spared the pain of
refusing him, and she imagined he would never ask her again.
There was both relief and regret in the conviction. Humiliated
 The Light of Western Stars |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: it is some comfort to know that the old hag was tried, condemned,
and burned on the top of North Berwick Law, by sentence of a
commission from the privy council--I find, I say, it was charged
against her, among other offences, that she had, by the aid and
delusions of Satan, shown to a young person of quality, in a
mirror glass, a gentleman then abroad, to whom the said young
person was betrothed, and who appeared in the vision to be in the
act of bestowing his hand upon another lady. But this and some
other parts of the record appear to have been studiously left
imperfect in names and dates, probably out of regard to the
honour of the families concerned. If Dame Gourlay was able
 The Bride of Lammermoor |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: almost of the rank and quality of Pasteur or Charles Darwin. A
decade or more ago he wrote a book called "The Nature of Man," in
which he set out very plainly a number of illuminating facts about
life. They are facts so illuminating that presently, in our
discussion of sin, they will be referred to again. But it is not
Professor Metchnikoff's intention to provide material for a
religious discussion. He sets out his facts in order to overthrow
theology as he conceives it. The remarkable thing about his book,
the thing upon which I would now lay stress, is that he betrays no
inkling of the fact that he has no longer the right to conceive
theology as he conceives it. The development of his science has
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