| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: will forever lack some heart-string, some touch, I know not what, of
his brush, some fibre in his creations, some sentiment in his poetry.
When braggarts, self-satisfied and in love with themselves, step early
into the fame which belongs rightly to their future achievements, they
are men of genius only in the eyes of fools. If talent is to be
measured by youthful shyness, by that indefinable modesty which men
born to glory lose in the practice of their art, as a pretty woman
loses hers among the artifices of coquetry, then this unknown young
man might claim to be possessed of genuine merit. The habit of success
lessens doubt; and modesty, perhaps, is doubt.
Worn down with poverty and discouragement, and dismayed at this moment
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: borne in mind. A high velocity was imperative. Accordingly, an
initial velocity varying from 2,200 to 2,700 feet per second,
according to the calibre of the gun, was determined.
Moreover, as mobility was an indispensable condition, the gun had
to be so mounted that it could be fired from the motor-car even
if the latter were travelling at high speed. This requirement
entailed another difficulty. The gun had to be mounted in such a
manner as to enable the gunner to train it easily and readily
through the complete circle and through its complete range of
vertical inclination. As the result of prolonged experiments it
was ascertained that the most suitable arrangement was a pedestal
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: That I have learnt at last. But not like yourself. That is where
the difference comes in."
"I never could have dreamt you would have left him. He saved
your life two minutes before. . . . Why are you our lord?"
The master gnawed his knuckles again, and his countenance was dark.
"No man calls me a coward," he said. "No. A broken sword is better
than none. . . . One spavined white horse cannot be expected to carry
two men a four days' journey. I hate white horses, but this time
it cannot be helped. You begin to understand me? . . . I perceive
that you are minded, on the strength of what you have seen and fancy,
to taint my reputation. It is men of your sort who unmake kings.
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