| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: very clever.'
'I have not slept for three hundred years,' he said sadly, and
Virginia's beautiful blue eyes opened in wonder; 'for three hundred
years I have not slept, and I am so tired.'
Virginia grew quite grave, and her little lips trembled like rose-
leaves. She came towards him, and kneeling down at his side,
looked up into his old withered face.
'Poor, poor Ghost,' she murmured; 'have you no place where you can
sleep?'
'Far away beyond the pine-woods,' he answered, in a low dreamy
voice, 'there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: I looked, and afar off I saw an immense Polygonal structure, in which
I recognized the General Assembly Hall of the States of Flatland,
surrounded by dense lines of Pentagonal buildings at right angles
to each other, which I knew to be streets; and I perceived that
I was approaching the great Metropolis.
"Here we descend," said my Guide. It was now morning,
the first hour of the first day of the two thousandth year of our era.
Acting, as was their wont, in strict accordance with precedent,
the highest Circles of the realm were meeting in solemn conclave,
as they had met on the first hour of the first day of the year 1000,
and also on the first hour of the first day of the year 0.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: city in those parts to breed and furnish horses; with this saving
clause, however: that the individual who furnished a horse and arms
with a good rider should be exempt from service himself. By this means
he engendered an eagerness to discharge the obligation, not unlike
that of the condemned man, casting about to discover some one to die
in his place.[11] He further ordered some of the states themselves to
furnish contingents of mounted troopers, and this in the conviction
that from such training-centres he would presently get a pick of
cavaliers proud of their horsemanship. And thus once more he won
golden opinions by the skill with which he provided himself with a
body of cavalry in the plenitude of strength and ripe for active
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