| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: having received of his lord the talent, buried it in the earth,
and hid out of use that which was given him to trade withal, will
in no wise pass over in silence the edifying story that hath come
to me, the which devout men from the inner land Of the
Ethiopians, whom our tale calleth Indians, delivered unto me,
translated from trustworthy records. It readeth thus.
I.
The country of the Indians, as it is called, is vast and
populous, lying far beyond Egypt. On the side of Egypt it is
washed by seas and navigable gulphs, but on the mainland it
marcheth with the borders of Persia, a land formerly darkened
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: And on the nearer side a little brood
Of careless lions holding festival!
And stood amazed at such hardihood,
And pitched his tent upon the reedy shore,
And stayed two days to wonder, and then crept at midnight o'er
Some unfrequented height, and coming down
The autumn forests treacherously slew
What Sparta held most dear and was the crown
Of far Eurotas, and passed on, nor knew
How God had staked an evil net for him
In the small bay at Salamis, - and yet, the page grows dim,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: That defunctive music can,
Be the death-defying swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
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