| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: that I remember to have fallen from him in conversation that same
night; when, holding up his hand and smiling, "Ah! Mackellar," said
he, "not every man is so great a coward as he thinks he is - nor
yet so good a Christian." He did not guess how true he spoke! For
the fact is, the thoughts which had come to me in the violence of
the storm retained their hold upon my spirit; and the words that
rose to my lips unbidden in the instancy of prayer continued to
sound in my ears: with what shameful consequences, it is fitting I
should honestly relate; for I could not support a part of such
disloyalty as to describe the sins of others and conceal my own.
The wind fell, but the sea hove ever the higher. All night the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: hand a slender wand in lieu of a bludgeon.
As she advanced to the opposite side of the altar she
halted, and the chanting ceased. The priests and priestesses
knelt before her, while with wand extended above them she
recited a long and tiresome prayer. Her voice was soft and
musical--Tarzan could scarce realize that its possessor
in a moment more would be transformed by the fanatical
ecstasy of religious zeal into a wild-eyed and bloodthirsty
executioner, who, with dripping knife, would be the first to
drink her victim's red, warm blood from the little golden cup
that stood upon the altar.
The Return of Tarzan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: and the greatest living musician. The adjectives of contumely are
easily transmuted into epithets of adulation, when a prominent
ecclesiastic succumbs, like King Herod, to the fascination of a
dancer.
It is not usually known in England that a young French naval
officer, unaware that Dr. Strauss was composing an opera on the
theme of Salome, wrote another music drama to accompany Wilde's
text. The exclusive musical rights having been already secured by
Dr. Strauss, Lieutenant Marriotte's work cannot be performed
regularly. One presentation, however, was permitted at Lyons, the
composer's native town, where I am told it made an extraordinary
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