| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: his arrival he noticed that the roof the church of the Capuchins was
black with pigeons. He cursed himself for having neglected to examine
its condition, and hurried over to look into his storehouse, where he
found half his grain devoured. Thousands of mice-marks and rat-marks
scattered about showed a second cause of ruin. The church was a
Noah's-ark. But anger turned the Spaniard white as a bit of cambric
when, trying to estimate the extent of the destruction and his
consequence losses, he noticed that the grain at the bottom of the
heap, near the floor, was sprouting from the effects of water, which
Max had managed to introduce by means of tin tubes into the very
centre of the pile of wheat. The pigeons and the rats could be
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: mockery that was his natural habit.
"My congratulations, mademoiselle, upon the readiness with which you
begin to adapt yourself to the great role you are to play."
"Do you adapt yourself also, monsieur," she retorted angrily, and
turned her shoulder to him.
"To be as the dust beneath the haughty feet of Madame la Marquise.
I hope I shall know my place in future."
The phrase arrested her. She turned to him again, and he perceived
that her eyes were shining now suspiciously. In an instant the
mockery in him was quenched in contrition.
"Lord, what a beast I am, Aline!" he cried, as he advanced.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: funny with the quaint humour of the man. Much interested the
other day. As I rode past a house, I saw where a Samoan had
written a word on a board, and there was an A, perfectly
formed, but upside down. You never saw such a thing in
Europe; but it is as common as dirt in Polynesia. Men's
names are tattooed on the forearm; it is common to find a
subverted letter tattooed there. Here is a tempting problem
for psychologists.
I am now on terms again with the German Consulate, I know not
for how long; not, of course, with the President, which I
find a relief; still, with the Chief Justice and the English
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