| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: One guessed that Presley's refinement had been gained only by a
certain loss of strength. One expected to find him nervous,
introspective, to discover that his mental life was not at all
the result of impressions and sensations that came to him from
without, but rather of thoughts and reflections germinating from
within. Though morbidly sensitive to changes in his physical
surroundings, he would be slow to act upon such sensations, would
not prove impulsive, not because he was sluggish, but because he
was merely irresolute. It could be foreseen that morally he was
of that sort who avoid evil through good taste, lack of decision,
and want of opportunity. His temperament was that of the poet;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: Their guest seemed to have been everywhere and seen everything and
met everybody, and, encouraged by Joan, his talk was largely upon
his own adventures. He was an adventurer of adventurers, and by
his own account had been born into adventure. Descended from old
New England stock, his father a consul-general, he had been born in
Germany, in which country he had received his early education and
his accent. Then, still a boy, he had rejoined his father in
Turkey, and accompanied him later to Persia, his father having been
appointed Minister to that country.
Tudor had always been a wanderer, and with facile wit and quick
vivid description he leaped from episode and place to episode and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: expressions rise on you like a remorse. They are merely literary and
decorative; they do not aptly express your thought, nor is your thought
clearly apprehended, and no doubt your father (if he were here) would
say, "Signor Feedle-eerie!"
With the infinitely delicate sense of youth, Archie avoided the subject
from that hour. It was perhaps a pity. Had he but talked - talked
freely - let himself gush out in words (the way youth loves to do and
should), there might have been no tale to write upon the Weirs of
Hermiston. But the shadow of a threat of ridicule sufficed; in the
slight tartness of these words he read a prohibition; and it is likely
that Glenalmond meant it so.
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