| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: inclined in no wise to bear to the right rather than to the left
(for he desires only the way leading whither he would go), so
should we come unto God as to a guide; even as we use our eyes
without admonishing them to show us some things rather than
others, but content to receive the images of such things as they
present to us. But as it is we stand anxiously watching the
victim, and with the voice of supplication call upon the augur:--
"Master, have mercy on me: vouchsafe unto me a way of escape!"
Slave, would you then have aught else then what is best? is there
anything better than what is God's good pleasure? Why, as far as
in you lies, would you corrupt your Judge, and lead your
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: its river brethren, stood higher at the upper end, and it was here
that Donald and Davy had built their cabin and piled many cords of
wood. The far shore was a full mile away, while between the
island and the near shore lay a back-channel perhaps a hundred
yards across. At first sight of this, Montana Kid was tempted to
take his dogs and escape to the mainland, but on closer inspection
he discovered a rapid current flooding on top. Below, the river
twisted sharply to the west, and in this turn its breast was
studded by a maze of tiny islands.
"That's where she'll jam," he remarked to himself.
Half a dozen sleds, evidently bound up-stream to Dawson, were
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: movement, if there come upon[13] each labourer fresh spirit, with
mutual rivaly and keen ambition, drawing out the finest qualities of
each,[14] of him I should say, Behold a man of kingly disposition. And
this, if I mistake not, is the quality of greatest import in every
operation which needs the instrumentality of man; but most of all,
perhaps, in agriculture. Not that I would maintain that it is a thing
to be lightly learnt by a glance of the eye, or hearsay fashion, as a
tale that is told. Far from it, I assert that he who is to have this
power has need of education; he must have at bottom a good natural
disposition; and, what is greatest of all, he must be himself a god-
like being.[15] For if I rightly understand this blessed gift, this
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