| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: puddled his own soul till the metal was pure, and that's how he
got the Iron Will that was strong enough to save a nation.
My purpose in slackening my heat as soon as the pig-iron was
melted was to oxidize the phosphorus and sulphur ahead of the
carbon. Just as alcohol vaporizes at a lower heat than water, so
sulphur and phosphorus oxidize at a lower heat than carbon. When
this reaction begins I see light flames breaking through the lake
of molten slag in my furnace. Probably from such a sight as this
the old-time artists got their pictures of Hell. The flames are
caused by the burning of carbon monoxide from the oxidation of
carbon. The slag is basic and takes the sulphur and phosphorus
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: A pang of admiration and pity went through me as I looked at
her, and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply, at the same time
expressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my condition,
to remain standing before her.
She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. 'Thou dost
forget, Macumazahn,' she said, 'I am no more a Queen, save in
blood; I am an outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should
scorn, and none show deference to.'
'At least,' I replied, 'thou art still a lady, and therefore
one to whom deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case,
and therefore it is doubly due.'
Allan Quatermain |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: their resolution was taken. With ropes, picks, and arrows, arranged
like rungs between strips of canvas, they succeeded in scaling the
rocks; and leaving the weakest, about three thousand in number, behind
them, they began their march to rejoin the army at Tunis.
Above the gorge there stretched a meadow thinly sown with shrubs; the
Barbarians devoured the buds. Afterwards they found a field of beans;
and everything disappeared as though a cloud of grasshoppers had
passed that way. Three hours later they reached a second plateau
bordered by a belt of green hills.
Among the undulations of these hillocks, silvery sheaves shone at
intervals from one another; the Barbarians, who were dazzled by the
Salammbo |
