| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: The very vineyards, cried aloud for you.
TITYRUS
What could I do? how else from bonds be freed,
Or otherwhere find gods so nigh to aid?
There, Meliboeus, I saw that youth to whom
Yearly for twice six days my altars smoke.
There instant answer gave he to my suit,
"Feed, as before, your kine, boys, rear your bulls."
MELIBOEUS
So in old age, you happy man, your fields
Will still be yours, and ample for your need!
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: even keel she slipped through the water, that did not murmur
even at our passage, shadowy and silent like a phantom sea.
At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate's great
surprise put the ship round on the other tack.
His terrible whiskers flitted round me in silent criticism.
I certainly should not have done it if it had been only a question
of getting out of that sleepy gulf as quickly as possible.
I believe he told the second mate, who relieved him,
that it was a great want of judgment. The other only yawned.
That intolerable cub shuffled about so sleepily and lolled
against the rails in such a slack, improper fashion that I
The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: "At other times La Fosseuse is bright and winning, active, merry, and
sprightly; she enjoys talking, and the ideas which she expresses are
fresh and original. She is however quite unable to apply herself
steadily to any kind of work. When she was out in the fields she used
to spend whole hours in looking at a flower, in watching the water
flow, in gazing at the wonders in the depths of the clear, still river
pools, at the picturesque mosaic made up of pebbles and earth and
sand, of water plants and green moss, and the brown soil washed down
by the stream, a deposit full of soft shades of color, and of hues
that contrast strangely with each other.
"When I first came to the district the poor girl was starving. It hurt
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