| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: had driven towards the left wing of the ships, by which way the
Achaeans used to return with their chariots and horses from the
plain. Hither he drove and found the gates with their doors
opened wide, and the great bar down--for the gatemen kept them
open so as to let those of their comrades enter who might be
flying towards the ships. Hither of set purpose did he direct his
horses, and his men followed him with a loud cry, for they felt
sure that the Achaeans would not hold out longer, and that they
should now fall upon the ships. Little did they know that at the
gates they should find two of the bravest chieftains, proud sons
of the fighting Lapithae--the one, Polypoetes, mighty son of
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Yet I am stuff'd with moisture. Thou art parch'd,
Pains rack thy head, no urging would'st thou need
To make thee lap Narcissus' mirror up."
I was all fix'd to listen, when my guide
Admonish'd: "Now beware: a little more.
And I do quarrel with thee." I perceiv'd
How angrily he spake, and towards him turn'd
With shame so poignant, as remember'd yet
Confounds me. As a man that dreams of harm
Befall'n him, dreaming wishes it a dream,
And that which is, desires as if it were not,
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: clambering, it seemed, at random over boulders and dead trees; but
the lad wound in and out and up and down without a check, for these
paths are to the natives as marked as the king's highway is to us;
insomuch that, in the days of the man-hunt, it was their labour
rather to block and deface than to improve them. In the crypt of
the wood the air was clammy and hot and cold; overhead, upon the
leaves, the tropical rain uproariously poured, but only here and
there, as through holes in a leaky roof, a single drop would fall,
and make a spot upon my mackintosh. Presently the huge trunk of a
banyan hove in sight, standing upon what seemed the ruins of an
ancient fort; and our guide, halting and holding forth his arm,
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