| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: while Gaul has been the favourite haunt of the man-wolf,
Scandinavia has been preferred by the man-bear, and Hindustan
by the man-tiger. To account for such a widespread phenomenon
we must seek a more general cause.
Nothing is more strikingly characteristic of primitive
thinking than the close community of nature which it assumes
between man and brute. The doctrine of metempsychosis, which
is found in some shape or other all over the world, implies a
fundamental identity between the two; the Hindu is taught to
respect the flocks browsing in the meadow, and will on no
account lift his hand against a cow, for who knows but it may
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: /jacal/ and the hackberry tree on the edge of the arroyo. A few yards
farther the Kid stopped the roan and gazed intently through the
prickly openings. Then he dismounted, dropped the roan's reins, and
proceeded on foot, stooping and silent, like an Indian. The roan,
knowing his part, stood still, making no sound.
The Kid crept noiselessly to the very edge of the pear thicket and
reconnoitred between the leaves of a clump of cactus.
Ten yards from his hiding-place, in the shade of the /jacal/, sat his
Tonia calmly plaiting a rawhide lariat. So far she might surely escape
condemnation; women have been known, from time to time, to engage in
more mischievous occupations. But if all must be told, there is to be
Heart of the West |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: "We shall still have a hundred thousand francs to put into business.
Before the month is out I shall find some favorable opening. If luck
gave a Martin Falleix to a Saillard, why should we despair? Wait
breakfast for me. I am going now to the ministry, but I shall come
back with my neck free of the yoke."
Celestine clasped her husband in her arms with a force men do not
possess, even in their passionate moments; for women are stronger
through emotion than men through power. She wept and laughed and
sobbed in turns.
When Rabourdin left the house at eight o'clock, the porter gave him
the satirical cards suggested by Bixiou. Nevertheless, he went to the
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