| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: laid aside. Humanity had risen from the dead.
The study of Greek, it has been well said, implies the birth of
criticism, comparison and research. At the opening of that
education of modern by ancient thought which we call the
Renaissance, it was the words of Aristotle which sent Columbus
sailing to the New World, while a fragment of Pythagorean astronomy
set Copernicus thinking on that train of reasoning which has
revolutionised the whole position of our planet in the universe.
Then it was seen that the only meaning of progress is a return to
Greek modes of thought. The monkish hymns which obscured the pages
of Greek manuscripts were blotted out, the splendours of a new
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: human standpoint; they do not see that with the Devil's power they
will likewise assume his thoughts, and that they will be doomed to
remain as men among creatures who will no longer understand them. The
Nero unknown to history who dreams of setting Paris on fire for his
private entertainment, like an exhibition of a burning house on the
boards of a theatre, does not suspect that if he had the power, Paris
would become for him as little interesting as an ant-heap by the
roadside to a hurrying passer-by. The circle of the sciences was for
Castanier something like a logogriph for a man who does not know the
key to it. Kings and Governments were despicable in his eyes. His
great debauch had been in some sort a deplorable farewell to his life
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: cynically of Martin's promises of running water. As she swept the
dust out of her front and back doors to narrow steps, she
remembered the spacious porches that were to have been; and as
she wiped the floors she had painted herself, and polished her
pine furniture, she was taunted by memories of the smooth boards
and the golden oak to which she had once looked forward so
happily. This resentment was seldom expressed, but its flame
scorched her soul.
Her work increased steadily. She did not object to this; it kept
her from thinking and brooding; it helped her to forget all that
might have been, all that was. She milked half the cows,
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