| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: bachelors had not been kept asunder by the two political systems of
which they each offered a living expression, their private rivalry
would still have made them enemies. Epochs put their mark on men.
These two individuals proved the truth of that axiom by the opposing
historic tints that were visible in their faces, in their
conversation, in their ideas, and in their clothes. One, abrupt,
energetic, with loud, brusque manners, curt, rude speech, dark in
tone, in hair, in look, terrible apparently, in reality as impotent as
an insurrection, represented the republic admirably. The other, gentle
and polished, elegant and nice, attaining his ends by the slow and
infallible means of diplomacy, faithful to good taste, was the express
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: his own lusts. In that kingdom of evil he sees that there will be
no power but his own. These gods, with their moralities and
legalities and intellectual subtlety, will go under and be
starved out of existence. He bids Wotan and Loki beware of it;
and his "Hab' Acht!" is hoarse, horrible, and sinister. Wotan
is revolted to the very depths of his being: he cannot stifle the
execration that bursts from him. But Loki is unaffected: he has
no moral passion: indignation is as absurd to him as enthusiasm.
He finds it exquisitely amusing--having a touch of the comic
spirit in him--that the dwarf, in stirring up the moral fervor of
Wotan, has removed his last moral scruple about becoming a thief.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: change of intention, when, after a decent interval, a second day
was named for their union. The friend of whom I spoke was then a
constant resident at the Hall. In an evil hour, at the earnest
request and entreaty of this friend, they joined a general party,
where men of different political opinions were mingled, and where
they drank deep. A quarrel ensued; the friend of the Recluse
drew his sword with others, and was thrown down and disarmed by a
more powerful antagonist. They fell in the struggle at the feet
of the Recluse, who, maimed and truncated as his form appears,
possesses, nevertheless, great strength, as well as violent
passions. He caught up a sword, pierced the heart of his
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