| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in Aeolia, and well known to
the great men of Inner Asia. While Themistocles lay hid for some days
in his house, one night, after a sacrifice and supper ensuing, Olbius,
the attendant upon Nicogenes's children, fell into a sort of frenzy and
fit of inspiration, and cried out in verse,--
Night shall speak, and night instruct thee,
By the voice of night conduct thee.
After this, Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed that he saw a snake coil
itself up upon his belly, and so creep to his neck; then, as soon as it
touched his face, it turned into an eagle, which spread its wings over
him, and took him up and flew away with him a great distance; then there
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: starve or cramp them; no, I delighted in offering them
sustenance, and in clearing them wider space for action.
"You have conceived a plan, Frances," said I, "and a good plan;
execute it; you have my free consent, and wherever and whenever
my assistance is wanted, ask and you shall have."
Frances' eyes thanked me almost with tears; just a sparkle or
two, soon brushed away; she possessed herself of my hand too, and
held it for some time very close clasped in both her own, but she
said no more than "Thank you, monsieur."
We passed a divine day, and came home late, lighted by a full
summer moon.
The Professor |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Came men and women in dark clusters round,
Some crying, "Set them up! they shall not fall!"
And others "Let them lie, for they have fall'n."
And still they strove and wrangled: and she grieved
In her strange dream, she knew not why, to find
Their wildest wailings never out of tune
With that sweet note; and ever as their shrieks
Ran highest up the gamut, that great wave
Returning, while none mark'd it, on the crowd
Broke, mixt with awful light, and show'd their eyes
Glaring, and passionate looks, and swept away
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