| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."
The address ended, the Chief Justice arose, and the listeners
who, for the second time, heard Abraham Lincoln repeat the solemn
words of his oath of office, went from the impressive scene to
their several homes in thankfulness and confidence that the
destiny of the nation was in safe keeping.
Nothing would have amazed Mr. Lincoln more than to hear himself
called a man of letters; and yet it would be hard to find in all
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: listened intently for any sound in the unknown depths of bones
about him. Even in this fearsome place he had a plan and an objective,
for whispers of Pnoth were not unknown to one with whom he had
talked much in the old days. In brief, it seemed fairly likely
that this was the spot into which all the ghouls of the waking
world cast the refuse of their feastings; and that if he but had
good luck he might stumble upon that mighty crag taller even than
Throk's peaks which marks the edge of their domain. Showers of
bones would tell him where to look, and once found he could call
to a ghoul to let down a ladder; for strange to say, he had a
very singular link with these terrible creatures.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: consequence of complications, a turn that might give rise to
anxiety. Anxiety had indeed at the latest hour begun to be felt.
I was struck in the presence of these tidings with the fundamental
detachment that Mrs. Corvick's overt concern quite failed to hide:
it gave me the measure of her consummate independence. That
independence rested on her knowledge, the knowledge which nothing
now could destroy and which nothing could make different. The
figure in the carpet might take on another twist or two, but the
sentence had virtually been written. The writer might go down to
his grave: she was the person in the world to whom - as if she had
been his favoured heir - his continued existence was least of a
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