| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: "I saw you racing by on your pony. Goodness, how you can ride! I should be
afraid of breaking my neck," exclaimed Lydia, as Betty entered.
"My ride was spoiled," said Betty, petulantly.
"Spoiled? By what--whom?"
"By a man, of course," retorted Betty, whose temper still was high. "It is
always a man that spoils everything."
"Why, Betty, what in the world do you mean? I never heard you talk that way,"
said Lydia, opening her blue eyes in astonishment.
"Well, Lyde, I'll tell you. I was riding down the river road and just as I
came to the end of the clearing a man jumped out from behind some bushes and
grasped Madcap's bridle. Imagine! For a moment I was frightened out of my
Betty Zane |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: accidents which counts for so much in the book of success, I could
only hope that it was closed. For what favourable accident could
be expected?
"Did you hear everything?" were my first words as soon as we took
up our position side by side, leaning over my bed-place.
He had. And the proof of it was his earnest whisper, "The man told
you he hardly dared to give the order."
I understood the reference to be to that saving foresail.
"Yes. He was afraid of it being lost in the setting."
"I assure you he never gave the order. He may think he did, but he
never gave it. He stood there with me on the break of the poop
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: make yourself ridiculous by escaping out of the city.
'For just consider, if you transgress and err in this sort of way, what
good will you do either to yourself or to your friends? That your friends
will be driven into exile and deprived of citizenship, or will lose their
property, is tolerably certain; and you yourself, if you fly to one of the
neighbouring cities, as, for example, Thebes or Megara, both of which are
well governed, will come to them as an enemy, Socrates, and their
government will be against you, and all patriotic citizens will cast an
evil eye upon you as a subverter of the laws, and you will confirm in the
minds of the judges the justice of their own condemnation of you. For he
who is a corrupter of the laws is more than likely to be a corrupter of the
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