| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in
this manner. From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down,
and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound
of some size. Within the wall thus exposed by the displacing of
the bones, we perceived a still interior recess, in depth
about four feet in width three, in height six or seven. It seemed
to have been constructed for no especial use within itself, but
formed merely the interval between two of the colossal supports of
the roof of the catacombs, and was backed by one of their
circumscribing walls of solid granite.
It was in vain that Fortunato, uplifting his dull torch,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: and autumn were tropical. He pointed to grape-vines as large as a man's
thigh and told of bunches of grapes four feet long; he showed sprouting
plants on which watermelons and pumpkins would grow so large that one man
could not lift them; he told of one pumpkin that held a record of taking
two men to roll it.
"I can raise any kind of fruit in such abundance that it can't be used.
My garden is prodigal. But we get little benefit, except for our own
use, for we cannot transport things across the desert."
The water which was the prime factor in all this richness came from a
small stream which Naab, by making a dam and tunnelling a corner of
cliff, had diverted from its natural course into his oasis.
The Heritage of the Desert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: simply fight with shadows in my own defence, and argue when there is no one
who answers. I will ask you then to assume with me, as I was saying, that
my opponents are of two kinds; one recent, the other ancient: and I hope
that you will see the propriety of my answering the latter first, for these
accusations you heard long before the others, and much oftener.
Well, then, I must make my defence, and endeavour to clear away in a short
time, a slander which has lasted a long time. May I succeed, if to succeed
be for my good and yours, or likely to avail me in my cause! The task is
not an easy one; I quite understand the nature of it. And so leaving the
event with God, in obedience to the law I will now make my defence.
I will begin at the beginning, and ask what is the accusation which has
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