| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: and just so bowed with evil things, I had seen the specter of the most
horrible of women. At this I was able to straighten myself; I went
the rest of the way up; I made, in my bewilderment, for the schoolroom,
where there were objects belonging to me that I should have to take.
But I opened the door to find again, in a flash, my eyes unsealed.
In the presence of what I saw I reeled straight back upon my resistance.
Seated at my own table in clear noonday light I saw a person whom,
without my previous experience, I should have taken at
the first blush for some housemaid who might have stayed
at home to look after the place and who, availing herself
of rare relief from observation and of the schoolroom
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: have been carried away by Boreas. There is a discrepancy, however, about
the locality; according to another version of the story she was taken from
Areopagus, and not from this place. Now I quite acknowledge that these
allegories are very nice, but he is not to be envied who has to invent
them; much labour and ingenuity will be required of him; and when he has
once begun, he must go on and rehabilitate Hippocentaurs and chimeras dire.
Gorgons and winged steeds flow in apace, and numberless other inconceivable
and portentous natures. And if he is sceptical about them, and would fain
reduce them one after another to the rules of probability, this sort of
crude philosophy will take up a great deal of time. Now I have no leisure
for such enquiries; shall I tell you why? I must first know myself, as the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: a sack with his prettiest toys.
"How do you intend to guide us?" asked Glossie. "We have never been
out of the Forest before, except to visit your house, so we shall not
know the way."
Claus thought about that for a moment. Then he brought more cords and
fastened two of them to the spreading antlers of each deer, one on the
right and the other on the left.
"Those will be my reins," said Claus, "and when I pull them to the
right or to the left you must go in that direction. If I do not pull
the reins at all you may go straight ahead."
"Very well," answered Glossie and Flossie; and then they asked: "Are
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
