| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: there is some one whom I have to blame or praise before my friends, or
I must arbitrate between some close connections and endeavour to
enforce the lesson that it is to their own interests to be friends not
foes.[23] . . . We are present to assist a general in court;[24] we
are called upon to censure some one; or defend some other charged
unjustly; or to prosecute a third who has received an honour which he
ill deserves. It frequently occurs in our debates[25] that there is
some course which we strongly favour: naturally we sound its praises;
or some other, which we disapprove of: no less naturally we point out
its defects.
[22] Or, "One member of my household appears as plaintiff, another as
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: sometimes on a broken piece of wall, sometimes on the summit
of the tower which was the highest point of Dundonald Castle.
Did these flames really assume a human shape, as was asserted?
Did they merit the name of fire-maidens, given them by the people
of the coast? It was evidently just an optical delusion,
aided by a good deal of credulity, and science could easily
have explained the phenomenon.
However that might be, these fire-maidens had the reputation
of frequenting the ruins of the old castle and there
performing wild strathspeys, especially on dark nights.
Jack Ryan, bold fellow though he was, would never have dared
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: I am sure that we should have slept the clock round, for we were
terribly exhausted. What woke us was the chatter of a crowd of
Orofenans who were gathered at a distance from the tree and
engaged in staring at us in a frightened way, also the barks of
Tommy who objected to their intrusion. Among the people I
recognised our old friend the chief Marama by his feather cloak,
and sitting up, beckoned to him to approach. After a good deal of
hesitation he came, walking delicately like Agag, and stopping
from time to time to study us, as though he were not sure that we
were real.
"What frightens you, Marama?" I asked him.
When the World Shook |
