| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: display of weakness.
"He owed me six weeks back pay," said the general, "and I hate
to lose him."
"Then you shall go and find him," declared the Scarecrow.
"Me!" cried the general, greatly alarmed.
"Certainly. It is your duty to follow your commander. March!"
"I won't," said the general. "I'd like to, of course; but I just
simply WON'T."
The Scarecrow looked enquiringly at the Nome King.
"Never mind," said the jolly monarch. "If he doesn't care to enter the
palace and make his guesses I'll throw him into one of my fiery furnaces."
Ozma of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: Contenson with admiration not unmixed with envy.
"I am but sixty-six," replied Contenson, as a man whom vice has kept
young as a bad example.
"And vat do she do?"
"She helps me," said Contenson. "When a man is a thief, and an honest
woman loves him, either she becomes a thief or he becomes an honest
man. I have always been a spy."
"And you vant money--alvays?" asked Nucingen.
"Always," said Contenson, with a smile. "It is part of my business to
want money, as it is yours to make it; we shall easily come to an
understanding. You find me a little, and I will undertake to spend it.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: above on the surface of the earth; which is just as if a creature who was
at the bottom of the sea were to fancy that he was on the surface of the
water, and that the sea was the heaven through which he saw the sun and the
other stars, he having never come to the surface by reason of his
feebleness and sluggishness, and having never lifted up his head and seen,
nor ever heard from one who had seen, how much purer and fairer the world
above is than his own. And such is exactly our case: for we are dwelling
in a hollow of the earth, and fancy that we are on the surface; and the air
we call the heaven, in which we imagine that the stars move. But the fact
is, that owing to our feebleness and sluggishness we are prevented from
reaching the surface of the air: for if any man could arrive at the
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