| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: we are all called upon to decide on the same issue - of us all, the
same question is asked. To Lord Arthur it came early in life -
before his nature had been spoiled by the calculating cynicism of
middle-age, or his heart corroded by the shallow, fashionable
egotism of our day, and he felt no hesitation about doing his duty.
Fortunately also, for him, he was no mere dreamer, or idle
dilettante. Had he been so, he would have hesitated, like Hamlet,
and let irresolution mar his purpose. But he was essentially
practical. Life to him meant action, rather than thought. He had
that rarest of all things, common sense.
The wild, turbid feelings of the previous night had by this time
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Therns and the black dator of the First Born, but he hastened to
explain that he knew little of what took place within the palace.
I could see that he wondered not a little that a yellow man should
be so inquisitive about certain red prisoners from beyond the ice-
barrier, and that I should be so ignorant of customs and conditions
among my own race.
In fact, I had forgotten my disguise upon discovering a red
man pacing before my sleeping platform; but his growing expression
of surprise warned me in time, for I had no mind to reveal my
identity to any unless some good could come of it, and I did not
The Warlord of Mars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: about Patrick was his genial kindly smile, a smile that said as plainly as
words, that he had found life very comfortable and pleasant, and that he was
still more than content with it notwithstanding that his back was bowed with
work month in and month out, and the years were hurrying him fast on into old
age.
And so Tattine was fond of Patrick, for what (child though she was) she knew
him to be, and they spent many a delightful hour in each other's company.
"Patrick," said Tattine, on this particular morning, when they were raking
away side by side, "does Mrs. Kirk ever have a day at home?" and she glanced
at Patrick a little mischievously, doubting if he would know just what she
meant.
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