| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: its violence, without being able in any way to withstand it; and yet,
though its nature be such, it does not follow therefore that men, when
the weather becomes fair, shall not make provision, both with defences
and barriers, in such a manner that, rising again, the waters may pass
away by canal, and their force be neither so unrestrained nor so
dangerous. So it happens with fortune, who shows her power where
valour has not prepared to resist her, and thither she turns her
forces where she knows that barriers and defences have not been raised
to constrain her.
And if you will consider Italy, which is the seat of these changes,
and which has given to them their impulse, you will see it to be an
The Prince |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: then I may peddle it around for more months. No; I can't
afford to trifle with uncertainties. Every newspaper man
or woman writes a book. It's like having the measles.
There is not a newspaper man living who does not believe,
in his heart, that if he could only take a month or two
away from the telegraph desk or the police run, he could
write the book of the year, not to speak of the great
American Play. Why, just look at me! I've only been
writing`seriously for a few weeks, and already the best
magazines in the country are refusing my manuscripts daily."
"Don't joke," said Norah, coming over to me, "I can't
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: Apemama.
XXXVII - THE HOUSE OF TEMBINOKA
[At my departure from the island of Apemama, for which you will
look in vain in most atlases, the King and I agreed, since we both
set up to be in the poetical way, that we should celebrate our
separation in verse. Whether or not his Majesty has been true to his
bargain, the laggard posts of the Pacific may perhaps inform me in
six months, perhaps not before a year. The following lines represent
my part of the contract, and it is hoped, by their pictures of
strange manners, they may entertain a civilised audience. Nothing
throughout has been invented or exaggerated; the lady herein referred
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