| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: "The game," the Bird replied, "is fair as you say; the chances are
about even; but consider the stake. I am in it for you, but what
is there in it for me?"
Not being prepared with an answer to the question, the Man with a
Shotgun sagaciously removed the propounder.
From the Minutes
AN Orator afflicted with atrophy of the organ of common-sense rose
in his place in the halls of legislation and pointed with pride to
his Unblotted Escutcheon. Seeing what it supposed to be the finger
of scorn pointed at it, the Unblotted Escutcheon turned black with
rage. Seeing the Unblotted Escutcheon turning black with what he
Fantastic Fables |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: in exchange for her work, a pellet of silk thread, chosen of a fine
red, the brightest of all colours. The uncommon pill is as readily
accepted and as jealously guarded as the others.
We will leave the wallet-bearer alone; we know all that we want to
know about her poverty of intellect. Let us wait for the hatching,
which takes place in the first fortnight in September. As they
come out of the pill, the youngsters, to the number of about a
couple of hundred, clamber on the Spider's back and there sit
motionless, jammed close together, forming a sort of bark of
mingled legs and paunches. The mother is unrecognizable under this
live mantilla. When the hatching is over, the wallet is loosened
The Life of the Spider |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: system presents a far more serious danger. It gives those who
have been submitted to it a violent dislike to the state of life
in which they were born, and an intense desire to escape from it.
The working man no longer wishes to remain a working man, or the
peasant to continue a peasant, while the most humble members of
the middle classes admit of no possible career for their sons
except that of State-paid functionaries. Instead of preparing
men for life French schools solely prepare them to occupy public
functions, in which success can be attained without any necessity
for self-direction or the exhibition of the least glimmer of
personal initiative. At the bottom of the social ladder the
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