| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: to expose Joanna to the hazards of a fight, had not yet decided
between them when he reached the borders of the wood.
At this point Sir Daniel had turned a little to his left, and then
plunged straight under a grove of very lofty timber. His party had
then formed to a narrower front, in order to pass between the
trees, and the track was trod proportionally deeper in the snow.
The eye followed it under the leafless tracery of the oaks, running
direct and narrow; the trees stood over it, with knotty joints and
the great, uplifted forest of their boughs; there was no sound,
whether of man or beast - not so much as the stirring of a robin;
and over the field of snow the winter sun lay golden among netted
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: of virtue emulous.
Cri. Which is as much as to say, we must suit the incantation to the
listener, so that when he hears the words he shall not think that the
enchanter is laughing at him in his sleeve. I cannot certainly
conceive a method better calculated to excite hatred and repulsion
than to go to some one who knows that he is small and ugly and a
weakling, and to breathe in his ears the flattering tale that he is
beautiful and tall and stalwart. But do you know any other love-
charms, Socrates?
Soc. I cannot say that I do; but I have heard that Pericles[10] was
skilled in not a few, which he poured into the ear of our city and won
The Memorabilia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: sunbeam makes its way into the deepest dark.
" 'God has not condemned him to any torment,' said the Master; 'but
not one of the souls you have seen suffering their various punishments
would exchange his anguish for the hope that is consuming this soul.'
"And just then the Shade came back to us, brought thither by an
irresistible force which condemned him to perch on the verge of Hell.
My divine Guide, guessing my curiosity, touched the unhappy Shade with
his palm-branch. He, who was perhaps trying to measure the age of
sorrow that divided him from that ever-vanishing 'To-morrow,' started
and gave a look full of all the tears he had already shed.
" 'You would know my woe?' said he sadly. 'Oh, I love to tell it. I am
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