| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: countenance of that race that had turned its expressionless gaze upon
us out of an unguessable past.
Particularly during my stay in Mindanao had I been fascinated and
attracted by that delightfully original tribe of heathen known as the
head-hunters. Those grim, flinty, relentless little men, never seen,
but chilling the warmest noonday by the subtle terror of their
concealed presence, paralleling the trail of their prey through
unmapped forests, across perilous mountain-tops, adown bottomless
chasms, into uninhabitable jungles, always near with the invisible
hand of death uplifted, betraying their pursuit only by such signs as
a beast or a bird or a gliding serpent might make-a twig crackling in
 Options |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: sort of fever and taken to the home of his family in Waterman
Street. He had cried out in the night, arousing several other
artists in the building, and had manifested since then only alternations
of unconsciousness and delirium. My uncle at once telephoned the
family, and from that time forward kept close watch of the case;
calling often at the Thayer Street office of Dr. Tobey, whom he
learned to be in charge. The youth's febrile mind, apparently,
was dwelling on strange things; and the doctor shuddered now and
then as he spoke of them. They included not only a repetition
of what he had formerly dreamed, but touched wildly on a gigantic
thing "miles high" which walked or lumbered about.
 Call of Cthulhu |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: Locke, and originally published in New York.
They had a language too; but surely nobody can expect that the soul of the
watchman should understand it. Be that as it may, it did comprehend it; for in
our souls there germinate far greater powers than we poor mortals, despite all
our cleverness, have any notion of. Does she not show us--she the queen in the
land of enchantment--her astounding dramatic talent in all our dreams? There
every acquaintance appears and speaks upon the stage, so entirely in
character, and with the same tone of voice, that none of us, when awake, were
able to imitate it. How well can she recall persons to our mind, of whom we
have not thought for years; when suddenly they step forth "every inch a man,"
resembling the real personages, even to the finest features, and become the
 Fairy Tales |