| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: Mr. Pinhorn pursed up his mouth. "Is there much to be done with
him?"
"Whatever there is we should have it all to ourselves, for he
hasn't been touched."
This argument was effective and Mr. Pinhorn responded. "Very well,
touch him." Then he added: "But where can you do it?"
"Under the fifth rib!"
Mr. Pinhorn stared. "Where's that?"
"You want me to go down and see him?" I asked when I had enjoyed
his visible search for the obscure suburb I seemed to have named.
"I don't 'want' anything - the proposal's your own. But you must
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: I meet a portly gentleman, I fancy I already see him roasting at the stake.
At night, in my dreams, I am tortured in every limb; one cannot have a
single hour's enjoyment; all merriment and fun have long been forgotten.
These terrible images seem burnt in upon my brain.
SCENE II.--Egmont's residence
His Secretary (at a desk with papers. He rises impatiently)
Secretary. Still he comes not! And I have been waiting already full two
hours, pen in hand, the paper before me; and just to-day I was anxious to
be out so early. The floor burns under my feet. I can with difficulty
restrain my impatience. "Be punctual to the hour:" Such was his parting
injunction; now he comes not. There is so much business to get through, I
 Egmont |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: creating a desert about her, the strange girl accused all nature of
her unreal solitude and her wilful griefs. Strong in the experience of
her twenty years, she blamed fate, because, not knowing that the
mainspring of happiness is in ourselves, she demanded it of the
circumstances of life. She would have fled to the ends of the earth to
escape a marriage such as those of her two sisters, and nevertheless
her heart was full of horrible jealousy at seeing them married, rich,
and happy. In short, she sometimes led her mother--who was as much a
victim to her vagaries as Monsieur de Fontaine--to suspect that she
had a touch of madness.
But such aberrations are quite inexplicable; nothing is commoner than
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