| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: number of wide, wooden doors set in the wall of the palace,
with small windows between. As we stood close behind one of
the doors, listening, a horse within neighed.
"The stables!" I whispered, and, a moment later, had pushed
back a door and entered. From the city about us we could
hear the din of great commotion, and quite close the sounds
of battle--the crack of thousands of rifles, the yells of
the soldiers, the hoarse commands of officers, and the blare
of bugles.
The bombardment had ceased as suddenly as it had commenced.
I judged that the enemy was storming the city, for the
Lost Continent |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: not recall to some their dawning hopes, to others their wasted faith.
The comparison between a present which disappoints man's secret wishes
and a future which may realize them, is an inexhaustible source of
sadness or of placid content.
Thus, it is almost impossible not to feel a certain tender sensibility
over a picture of Flemish life, if the accessories are clearly given.
Why so? Perhaps, among other forms of existence, it offers the best
conclusion to man's uncertainties. It has its social festivities, its
family ties, and the easy affluence which proves the stability of its
comfortable well-being; it does not lack repose amounting almost to
beatitude; but, above all, it expresses the calm monotony of a frankly
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Tita. My Oberon, what visions haue I seene!
Me-thought I was enamoured of an asse
Ob. There lies your loue
Tita. How came these things to passe?
Oh, how mine eyes doth loath this visage now!
Ob. Silence a while. Robin take off his head:
Titania, musick call, and strike more dead
Then common sleepe; of all these, fine the sense
Tita. Musicke, ho musicke, such as charmeth sleepe.
Musick still.
Rob. When thou wak'st, with thine owne fooles eies
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
