| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: Athens as elsewhere, but that, owing to the pressure of poverty on the
masses, a certain measure of injustice in their dealing with the
allied states[2] could not be avoided; I set myself to discover
whether by any manner of means it were possible for the citizens of
Athens to be supported solely from the soil of Attica itself, which
was obviously the most equitable solution. For if so, herein lay, as I
believed, the antidote at once to their own poverty and to the feeling
of suspicion with which they are regarded by the rest of Hellas.
[2] Lit. "the cities," i.e. of the alliance, {tas summakhidas}.
I had no sooner begun my investigation than one fact presented itself
clearly to my mind, which is that the country itself is made by nature
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: reflected the light so little that it was difficult to see their
designs, even when the sun shone full into that long and wide and
lofty chamber. The silver lamp, placed upon the mantel of the vast
fireplace, lighted the room so feebly that its quivering gleam could
be compared only to the nebulous stars which appear at moments through
the dun gray clouds of an autumn night. The fantastic figures crowded
on the marble of the fireplace, which was opposite to the bed, were so
grotesquely hideous that she dared not fix her eyes upon them, fearing
to see them move, or to hear a startling laugh from their gaping and
twisted mouths.
At this moment a tempest was growling in the chimney, giving to every
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: ground, about six miles from the sea, and is sheltered by a
large and picturesque forest.
Some eleven years ago, Helen V. came to the village under
rather peculiar circumstances. It is understood that she, being
an orphan, was adopted in her infancy by a distant relative, who
brought her up in his own house until she was twelve years old.
Thinking, however, that it would be better for the child to have
playmates of her own age, he advertised in several local papers
for a good home in a comfortable farmhouse for a girl of twelve,
and this advertisement was answered by Mr. R., a well-to-do
farmer in the above-mentioned village. His references proving
The Great God Pan |
