| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: XXI
The Death of Kuang Hsu and the Empress Dowager
Who knows whether the Dowager Empress will ever repose in the
magnificent tomb she has built for herself at such a cost, or
whether a new dynasty may not rifle its riches to embellish its
own? Tze-Hsi is growing old! According to nature's immutable law
her faculties must soon fail her; her iron will must bend and her
far-seeing eye grow dim, and after her who will resist the tide
of foreign aggression and stem the torrent of inward revolt?
--Lady Susan Townley in "My Chinese Note Book."
XXI
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: but throw your cloak over my shoulders, for I'm sweating and I don't
want to take cold; it's a risk that novice disciplinants run."
Don Quixote obeyed, and stripping himself covered Sancho, who
slept until the sun woke him; they then resumed their journey, which
for the time being they brought to an end at a village that lay
three leagues farther on. They dismounted at a hostelry which Don
Quixote recognised as such and did not take to be a castle with
moat, turrets, portcullis, and drawbridge; for ever since he had
been vanquished he talked more rationally about everything, as will be
shown presently. They quartered him in a room on the ground floor,
where in place of leather hangings there were pieces of painted
Don Quixote |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: exercise._
TARLETON. _[looking after the flying figures with amazement]_ Hallo,
Patsy: whats up? Another aeroplane? _[They are far too preoccupied
to hear him; and he is left staring after them as they rush away
through the garden. He goes to the pavilion door and looks up; but
the heavens are empty. His exhaustion disables him from further
inquiry. He dabs his brow with his handkerchief, and walks stiffly to
the nearest convenient support, which happens to be the Turkish bath.
He props himself upon it with his elbow, and covers his eyes with his
hand for a moment. After a few sighing breaths, he feels a little
better, and uncovers his eyes. The man's head rises from the lunette
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