| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: sleep. The aide-de-camp seized a brand from the fire and waved it in
her face.
"We will save her in spite of herself!" cried Philippe, lifting the
countess and placing her in the carriage.
He returned to implore the help of his friend. Together they lifted
the old general, without knowing whether he were dead or alive, and
put him beside his wife. The major then rolled over the men who were
sleeping on his blankets, which he tossed into the carriage, together
with some roasted fragments of his mare.
"What do you mean to do?" asked the aide-de-camp.
"Drag them."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: silence; a silence which he dared not break. When she rose he
fancied that he saw her draw something from her dress and drop it
into the fire; but he hardly noticed the gesture at the time. His
faculties seemed tranced, and he was still groping for the word
to break the spell. She went up to him and laid her hands on his
shoulders. "Goodbye," she said, and as he bent over her she
touched his forehead with her lips.
The street-lamps were lit, but the rain had ceased, and there was
a momentary revival of light in the upper sky. Lily walked on
unconscious of her surroundings. She was still treading the
buoyant ether which emanates from the high moments of life. But
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: I should very much like to hear, he replied.
Socrates proceeded:--I thought that as I had failed in the contemplation of
true existence, I ought to be careful that I did not lose the eye of my
soul; as people may injure their bodily eye by observing and gazing on the
sun during an eclipse, unless they take the precaution of only looking at
the image reflected in the water, or in some similar medium. So in my own
case, I was afraid that my soul might be blinded altogether if I looked at
things with my eyes or tried to apprehend them by the help of the senses.
And I thought that I had better have recourse to the world of mind and seek
there the truth of existence. I dare say that the simile is not perfect--
for I am very far from admitting that he who contemplates existences
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