| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: resisting gravity; the oak alone defies it. It chooses the
horizontal direction for its limbs, so that their whole weight may
tell, - and then stretches them out fifty or sixty feet, so that
the strain may be mighty enough to be worth resisting. You will
find, that, in passing from the extreme downward droop of the
branches of the weeping-willow to the extreme upward inclination of
those of the poplar, they sweep nearly half a circle. At 90
degrees the oak stops short; to slant upward another degree would
mark infirmity of purpose; to bend downwards, weakness of
organization. The American elm betrays something of both; yet
sometimes, as we shall see, puts on a certain resemblance to its
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Woozy, who called to his rider, "Hold on tight!" and ran swiftly over
the thistles toward the city. The others stood on the blanket and
watched the strange sight anxiously. Of course, the Lion couldn't
"hold on tight" because there was nothing to hold to, and he swayed
from side to side as if likely to fall off any moment. Still, he
managed to stick to the Woozy's back until they were close to the
walls of the city, when he leaped to the ground. Next moment the
Woozy came dashing back at full speed.
"There's a little strip of ground next the wall where there are no
thistles," he told them when he had reached the adventurers once more.
"Now then, friend Hank, see if you can ride as well as the Lion did."
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the
streams which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant
fountains and rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred memorials
in places where fountains once existed; and this proves the truth of what I
am saying.
Such was the natural state of the country, which was cultivated, as we may
well believe, by true husbandmen, who made husbandry their business, and
were lovers of honour, and of a noble nature, and had a soil the best in
the world, and abundance of water, and in the heaven above an excellently
attempered climate. Now the city in those days was arranged on this wise.
In the first place the Acropolis was not as now. For the fact is that a
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