| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: Then the light dwindled again, the candle was almost out, and the
cabinet showed a dim black mass in the darkness. Up and down went
the flame, and each returning brightness flashed back at me from
the thing inside the drawer. I stood fascinated, my eyes fixed
upon the spot, waiting for the fitful glitter as it came and went.
What was there there? I knew that I must go and see, but I did not
want to. If only the cabinet would close again before I looked,
before I knew what was inside it. But it stood open, and the
glittering thing lay there, dragging me towards itself.
Slowly at last, and with infinite reluctance, I went. The drawer
was lined with soft white satin, and upon the satin lay a long,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: of it - maybe you'll see why - I began to grin to myself. I thought
of the earnest simplicity of the man - the King, I should say -
because I'd saved him the money; his smile as though he'd won
half France! I thought of my own silly pride and foolish expectations
that some day he'd honour me as a master craftsman. I
thought of the broken-tipped sword he'd found behind the
hangings; the dirt of the cold room, and his cold eye, wrapped up
in his own concerns, scarcely resting on me. Then I remembered
the solemn chapel roof and the bronzes about the stately tomb
he'd lie in, and - d'ye see? - the unreason of it all - the mad high
humour of it all - took hold on me till I sat me down on a dark
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: easy for us to add to our own body a sufficient number of fellow-
citizens to ensure our supremacy as governors over those we essayed to
govern. But when I saw what an army of malcontents this government had
raised up within the city walls, besides another daily increasing host
of exiles without, I could not but regard the banishment of people
like Thrasybulus and Anytus and Alcibiades[16] as impolitic. Had our
object been to strengthen the rival power, we could hardly have set
about it better than by providing the populace with the competent
leaders whom they needed, and the would-be leaders themselves with an
army of willing adherents.
[10] Reading with Cobet {paranenomikenai}.
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