| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: upon the Thracian soldiers till he had killed twelve. As he
killed them Ulysses came and drew them aside by their feet one by
one, that the horses might go forward freely without being
frightened as they passed over the dead bodies, for they were not
yet used to them. When the son of Tydeus came to the king, he
killed him too (which made thirteen), as he was breathing hard,
for by the counsel of Minerva an evil dream, the seed of Oeneus,
hovered that night over his head. Meanwhile Ulysses untied the
horses, made them fast one to another and drove them off,
striking them with his bow, for he had forgotten to take the whip
from the chariot. Then he whistled as a sign to Diomed.
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: of those meditations which resemble dreams. It was night, and the moon
was rising.
"Monseigneur," said the physician, "you have not been out to-day, and
it is not wise of you."
"And I," replied Etienne, "can _I_ go on the seashore after sundown?"
The double meaning of this speech, full of the gentle playfulness of a
first desire, made the old man smile.
"You have a daughter, Beauvouloir."
"Yes, monseigneur,--the child of my old age; my darling child.
Monseigneur, the duke, your father, charged me so earnestly to watch
your precious health that, not being able to go to Forcalier, where
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: been miserable enough yet?"
I snatched the arrow out of her hand then and ridiculously pressed
it to my breast; but as I opened my lips she who knew what was
struggling for utterance in my heart cried in a ringing tone:
"Speak no words of love, George! Not yet. Not in this house of
ill-luck and falsehood. Not within a hundred miles of this house,
where they came clinging to me all profaned from the mouth of that
man. Haven't you heard them - the horrible things? And what can
words have to do between you and me?"
Her hands were stretched out imploringly, I said, childishly
disconcerted:
The Arrow of Gold |
