| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: discussion with Prince Kung and the Empress-mother, the matter
was arranged without the ceremony of prostration which all
previous rulers had demanded.
The married life of this young couple was a short one. Three
years after their wedding ceremonies the young monarch contracted
smallpox and died without issue, and was followed shortly
afterwards by his young wife who heeded literally the instruction
of one of their female teachers in her duty to her husband to
Share his joy as well as sorrow, riches, poverty or guilt,
And in death be buried with him, as in life you shared his guilt.
That her nearest relatives did not believe, as has often been
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: "When he left me to go back to the hotel where he was staying,
it seemed to me that he was rather calmer.
"When he said good-by, he even made some joke about his having
come to the wrong door.
"I certainly would never have imagined that he would go away
again that same night."
It was a grievous trial for Aunt Masha when the old confessor
Iosif, who was her spiritual director, forbade her to pray for her
dead brother because he had been excommunicated. She was too
broad-minded to be able to reconcile herself to the harsh
intolerance of the church, and for a time she was honestly
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: [Enter MABEL CHILTERN.]
MABEL CHILTERN. Oh! . . . How do you do, Lord Caversham? I hope
Lady Caversham is quite well?
LORD CAVERSHAM. Lady Caversham is as usual, as usual.
LORD GORING. Good morning, Miss Mabel!
MABEL CHILTERN. [Taking no notice at all of LORD GORING, and
addressing herself exclusively to LORD CAVERSHAM.] And Lady
Caversham's bonnets . . . are they at all better?
LORD CAVERSHAM. They have had a serious relapse, I am sorry to say.
LORD GORING. Good morning, Miss Mabel!
MABEL CHILTERN. [To LORD CAVERSHAM.] I hope an operation will not
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