| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: had distracted him. And now he became conscious of a new
disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear
ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand,
a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a
blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing
quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably
distant or near by -- it seemed both. Its recurrence was
regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He
awaited each new stroke with impatience and -- he knew not
why -- apprehension. The intervals of silence grew
progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Sagoths scratched their heads. This was a new one
on them, and so being stupid brutes they took me to their
masters whom they felt would be better fitted to solve
the riddle of my return, for riddle they still considered it.
I had spoken to the Sagoths as I had for the purpose
of throwing them off the scent of my purposed attempt
at escape. If they thought that I was so satisfied
with my lot within Phutra that I would voluntarily return
when I had once had so excellent an opportunity to escape,
they would never for an instant imagine that I could
be occupied in arranging another escape immediately
At the Earth's Core |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: representing the noble side of humanity, or the whole evil side; most
men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few other
men, a little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the
thoughts expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of
art are of the same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work
the whole universe of his thought. Such persons are in themselves the
principles of art; they bear within them a mirror which reflects
nature in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it is with me; I have
within me a mirror before which the moral nature, with its causes and
effects, appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the
consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future and the
Seraphita |
