| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: forehead, from which his long, dark hair was combed straight
back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his well
fitting frock coat. He wore a moustache and pointed beard,
but no whiskers; his eyes were large and dark gray, and had a
kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in one
whose neck was in the hemp. Evidently this was no vulgar
assassin. The liberal military code makes provision for
hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not
excluded.
The preparations being complete, the two private soldiers
stepped aside and each drew away the plank upon which he had
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: as I should come that night, to pressing on her misfortune.
Neither of us would name it more than we were doing then, and Flora
would never name it at all. Little by little I saw that what had
occurred was, strange as it might appear, the best thing for her
happiness. The question was now only of her beauty and her being
seen and marvelled at; with Dawling to do for her everything in
life her activity was limited to that. Such an activity was all
within her scope; it asked nothing of her that she couldn't
splendidly give. As from time to time in our delicate communion
she turned her face to me with the parody of a look I lost none of
the signs of its strange new glory. The expression of the eyes was
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: they should carry out to the letter the obligations imposed upon
the flock by the Court of Rome. Indeed, he was never so well
pleased as when he had set the courtly Abbot discussing some case
of conscience with Dona Elvira and Felipe.
At length, however, despite the prodigious care that the great
magnifico, Don Juan Belvidero, took of himself, the days of
decrepitude came upon him, and with those days the constant
importunity of physical feebleness, an importunity all the more
distressing by contrast with the wealth of memories of his
impetuous youth and the sensual pleasures of middle age. The
unbeliever who in the height of his cynical humor had been wont
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