| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: steel shields of Athena's eyes there had been no pity for Arachne;
the pomp and peacocks of Hera were all that was really noble about
her; and the Father of the Gods himself had been too fond of the
daughters of men. The two most deeply suggestive figures of Greek
Mythology were, for religion, Demeter, an Earth Goddess, not one of
the Olympians, and for art, Dionysus, the son of a mortal woman to
whom the moment of his birth had proved also the moment of her
death.
But Life itself from its lowliest and most humble sphere produced
one far more marvellous than the mother of Proserpina or the son of
Semele. Out of the Carpenter's shop at Nazareth had come a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: east, nearer London, we should find things very different.
There would be the civilization that two centuries must have
wrought upon our English cousins as they had upon us. There
would be mighty cities, cultivated fields, happy people.
There we would be welcomed as long-lost brothers. There
would we find a great nation anxious to learn of the world
beyond their side of thirty, as I had been anxious to learn
of that which lay beyond our side of the dead line.
I turned back toward the boat.
"Come, men!" I said. "We will go up the river and fill our
casks with fresh water, search for food and fuel, and then
 Lost Continent |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: thou knowest also that he who feasteth with me must pay his reckoning.
I trust thou hast a full purse with thee, fair stranger."
"Alas!" said the stranger, "I have no purse nor no money either,
saving only the half of a sixpence, the other half of which mine own
dear love doth carry in her bosom, hung about her neck by a strand
of silken thread."
At this speech a great shout of laughter went up from those around,
whereat the poor boy looked as he would die of shame; but Robin Hood
turned sharply to Will Stutely. "Why, how now," quoth he,
"is this the guest that thou hast brought us to fill our purse?
Methinks thou hast brought but a lean cock to the market."
 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |