The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: though he were a young man, and carrying it aside, sat down with it
still in his arms on a pile of wood. He looked at the countess and
placed his feeble trembling hand upon her heart. That heart no longer
beat.
"It is true," he said, looking up at the colonel, who stood
motionless, and then at Stephanie, on whom death was placing that
resplendent beauty, that fugitive halo, which is, perhaps, a pledge of
the glorious future--"Yes, she is dead."
"Ah! that smile," cried Philippe, "do you see that smile? Can it be
true?"
"She is turning cold," replied Monsieur Fanjat.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: ludicrous attempt at authority. "You can't rob the passengers on
this train. I'm not responsible for the express-car, but the
coaches--"
A bullet almost grazed his ear and shattered a window on its way
to the desert.
"Drift, you red-haired son of a Mexican?" ordered the man behind
the red bandanna. "Git back to that seat real prompt. This here's
taxation without representation."
The conductor drifted as per suggestion.
The minutes ticked themselves away in a tense strain marked by
pounding hearts. The outlaw stood at the end of the aisle,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: over yonder, and there is one man in the bush, ten miles from this spot.
He has lived there six weeks, since you destroyed the kraal, living on
roots or herbs. He was wounded in the thigh, and left for dead. He is
waiting till you have all left this part of the country that he may set out
to follow his own people. His leg is not yet so strong that he may walk
fast."
"Did you speak to him?" said Peter.
"I took him down to the water where a large pool was. The bank was too
high for the man to descend alone."
"It's a lucky thing for you our fellows didn't catch you," said Peter.
"Our captain's a regular little martinet. He'd shoot you as soon as look
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