| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: themselves. Unless the spectator recognizes in it an image of the
life he is himself fighting his way through, it must needs appear
to him a monstrous development of the Christmas pantomimes, spun
out here and there into intolerable lengths of dull conversation
by the principal baritone. Fortunately, even from this point of
view, The Ring is full of extraordinarily attractive episodes,
both orchestral and dramatic. The nature music alone--music of
river and rainbow, fire and forest--is enough to bribe people
with any love of the country in them to endure the passages of
political philosophy in the sure hope of a prettier page to come.
Everybody, too, can enjoy the love music, the hammer and anvil
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: and if thou goest in broad daylight, thou mayst get thyself
into a coil with some of his worship's men-at-arms. Bide thou
here till I bring thee money to pay our good Hugh. I warrant
he hath no better customers in all Nottinghamshire than we."
So saying, Robin left them and entered the forest.
Not far from the trysting tree was a great rock in which a chamber had been
hewn, the entrance being barred by a massive oaken door two palms'-breadth
in thickness, studded about with spikes, and fastened with a great padlock.
This was the treasure house of the band, and thither Robin Hood went and,
unlocking the door, entered the chamber, from which he brought forth a bag
of gold which he gave to Little John, to pay Hugh Longshanks withal,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: little as I began to walk down it.
Presently the trees ended and I came to a fortified gate in a
long wall. Between me and the wall was an open space of grass,
with other grey avenues radiating from it. Behind the wall were
tall slate roofs mossed with silver, a chapel belfry, the top of
a keep. A moat filled with wild shrubs and brambles surrounded
the place; the drawbridge had been replaced by a stone arch, and
the portcullis by an iron gate. I stood for a long time on the
hither side of the moat, gazing about me, and letting the
influence of the place sink in. I said to myself: "If I wait
long enough, the guardian will turn up and show me the tombs--"
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