| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: I not played the part of an axe in the hands of
fate! Like an implement of punishment, I have
fallen upon the head of doomed victims, often
without malice, always without pity. . . To none
has my love brought happiness, because I have
never sacrificed anything for the sake of those
I have loved: for myself alone I have loved --
for my own pleasure. I have only satisfied the
strange craving of my heart, greedily draining
their feelings, their tenderness, their joys, their
sufferings -- and I have never been able to sate
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: [18] As, e.g. Epaminondas at Tegea. See "Hell." VII. v. 9.
Whatever may be snatched by ruse, thief fashion,[19] your business is
to send a competent patrol to seize; or again where capture by coup de
main[20] is practicable, you will despatch a requisite body of troops
to effect a coup de main. Or take the case: the enemy is on the march
in some direction, and a portion of his force becomes detached from
his main body or through excess of confidence is caught straggling; do
not let the opportunity escape, but make it a rule always to pursue a
weaker with a stronger force.[21] These, indeed, are rules of
procedure, which it only requires a simple effort of the mind to
appreciate. Creatures far duller of wit than man have this ability:
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: Worthing, B. 4, The Albany.' I'll keep this as a proof that your
name is Ernest if ever you attempt to deny it to me, or to
Gwendolen, or to any one else. [Puts the card in his pocket.]
JACK. Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and
the cigarette case was given to me in the country.
ALGERNON. Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your
small Aunt Cecily, who lives at Tunbridge Wells, calls you her dear
uncle. Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at
once.
JACK. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It
is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn't a dentist. It
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