| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: sizzle!" Broncho whacked at a scorpion with his four-pound Stetson
felt, and the three watchers relapsed into comfortless silence.
How well Bob Buckley had kept his secret, since these men, for two
years his side comrades in countless border raids and dangers, thus
spake of him, not knowing that he was the most arrant physical coward
in all that Rio Bravo country! Neither his friends nor his enemies had
suspected him of aught else than the finest courage. It was purely a
physical cowardice, and only by an extreme, grim effort of will had he
forced his craven body to do the bravest deeds. Scourging himself
always, as a monk whips his besetting sin, Buckley threw himself with
apparent recklessness into every danger, with the hope of some day
Heart of the West |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: Elizabeth, Henry IV., Prince Maurice, Olden-Barneveldt, and St.
Aldegonde. He instructed Alva to execute sentence of death upon
the whole population of the Netherlands. He is partly responsible
for the martyrdoms of Ridley and Latimer, and the judicial murder
of Cranmer. He first conceived the idea of the wholesale massacre
of St. Bartholomew, many years before Catharine de' Medici
carried it into operation. His ingratitude was as dangerous as
his revengeful fanaticism. Those who had best served his
interests were the least likely to escape the consequences of his
jealousy. He destroyed Egmont, who had won for him the splendid
victories of St. Quentin and Gravelines; and "with minute and
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: Yet it will love those who sought to intensify it, and speak often
of them. And of these Christ was one.
'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world.
Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.
And the message of Christ to man was simply 'Be thyself.' That is
the secret of Christ.
When Jesus talks about the poor he simply means personalities, just
as when he talks about the rich he simply means people who have not
developed their personalities. Jesus moved in a community that
allowed the accumulation of private property just as ours does, and
the gospel that he preached was not that in such a community it is
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