| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: Patroclus and missed him, but he struck the horse Pedasus in the
right shoulder, and it screamed aloud as it lay, groaning in the
dust until the life went out of it. The other two horses began to
plunge; the pole of the chariot cracked and they got entangled in
the reins through the fall of the horse that was yoked along with
them; but Automedon knew what to do; without the loss of a moment
he drew the keen blade that hung by his sturdy thigh and cut the
third horse adrift; whereon the other two righted themselves, and
pulling hard at the reins again went together into battle.
Sarpedon now took a second aim at Patroclus, and again missed
him, the point of the spear passed over his left shoulder without
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: front of the hut was something with an old sheep-skin kaross thrown over
it. I stooped down and drew off the rug, and then shrank back amazed,
for under it was the body of a young woman recently dead. For a moment
I thought of turning back, but my curiosity overcame me; so going past
the dead woman, I went down on my hands and knees and crept into the
hut. It was so dark that I could not see anything, though I could smell
a great deal, so I lit a match. It was a 'tandstickor' match, and burnt
slowly and dimly, and as the light gradually increased I made out what I
took to be a family of people, men, women, and children, fast asleep.
Presently it burnt up brightly, and I saw that they too, five of them
altogether, were quite dead. One was a baby. I dropped the match in a
Long Odds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: end of a cigar lay near on the fender.
'No,' he thought, 'I don't believe that was a dream; but God
knows my mind is failing rapidly. I seem to be hungry, for
instance; it's probably another hallucination. Still I might try.
I shall have one more good meal; I shall go to the Cafe Royal,
and may possibly be removed from there direct to the asylum.'
He wondered with morbid interest, as he descended the stairs, how
he would first betray his terrible condition--would he attack a
waiter? or eat glass?--and when he had mounted into a cab, he
bade the man drive to Nichol's, with a lurking fear that there
was no such place.
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