| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: put his hand in his pocket to feel for the cigarette-case.
"Ah!" he said, starting slightly, "I forgot I had
something to show you. You remember my saying that I had found
a rather curious sketch amongst the pile of old newspapers at
the house in Paul Street? Here it is."
Villiers drew out a small thin parcel from his pocket.
It was covered with brown paper, and secured with string, and
the knots were troublesome. In spite of himself Clarke felt
inquisitive; he bent forward on his chair as Villiers painfully
undid the string, and unfolded the outer covering. Inside was a
second wrapping of tissue, and Villiers took it off and handed
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: whatever may have been one's earthly share of happiness,
"'tis something better not to be."
Strange it seems at first that those who have looked so long to the
rising sun for inspiration should be they who live only in a sort of
lethargy of life, while those who for so many centuries have turned
their faces steadily to the fading glory of the sunset should be the
ones who have embodied the spirit of progress of the world. Perhaps
the light, by its very rising, checks the desire to pursue; in its
setting it lures one on to follow.
Though this religion of impersonality is not their child, it is
their choice. They embraced it with the rest that India taught
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: wild chicken in the bush. The rest of our diet was from tins.
Our occupations were very various. While some of the party would
be away sketching, Mr. Osbourne and I hammered away at a novel. We
read Gibbon and Carlyle aloud; we blew on flageolets, we strummed
on guitars; we took photographs by the light of the sun, the moon,
and flash-powder; sometimes we played cards. Pot-hunting engaged a
part of our leisure. I have myself passed afternoons in the
exciting but innocuous pursuit of winged animals with a revolver;
and it was fortunate there were better shots of the party, and
fortunate the king could lend us a more suitable weapon, in the
form of an excellent fowling-piece, or our spare diet had been
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