| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: an embassy to Lacedaemon to sue for peace. The plenipotentiaries on
their arrival accepted articles of agreement by which they bound
themselves to have the same friends and the same foes as Lacedaemon,
to follow her lead, and to be enrolled among her allies; and so,
having taken an oath to abide by these terms, they returned home.
On every side the affairs of Lacedaemon had signally prospered: Thebes
and the rest of the Boeotian states lay absolutely at her feet;
Corinth had become her most faithful ally; Argos, unable longer to
avail herself of the subterfuge of a movable calendar, was humbled to
the dust; Athens was isolated; and, lastly, those of her own allies
who displayed a hostile feeling towards her had been punished; so
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: Time had been a matter of days merely, who knew not
that such things as years and centuries ever were; to
whom the cottage interior was the universe, the week's
weather climate, new-born babyhood human existence, and
the instinct to suck human knowledge.
Tess, who mused on the christening a good deal,
wondered if it were doctrinally sufficient to secure a
Christian burial for the child. Nobody could tell this
but the parson of the parish, and he was a new-comer,
and did not know her. She went to his house after
dusk, and stood by the gate, but could not summon
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: And wish her lays were tuned like the lark;
For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,
And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night:
The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty;
Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight;
Sorrow changed to solace, solace mix'd with sorrow;
For why, she sigh'd and bade me come tomorrow.
Were I with her, the night would post too soon;
But now are minutes added to the hours;
To spite me now, each minute seems a moon;
Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers!
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