| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: the gods, as also to myself, for his offerings never failed me.
Never was my altar stinted of its dues, nor of the
drink-offerings and savour of sacrifice which we claim of right.
I shall therefore permit the body of mighty Hector to be stolen;
and yet this may hardly be without Achilles coming to know it,
for his mother keeps night and day beside him. Let some one of
you, therefore, send Thetis to me, and I will impart my counsel
to her, namely that Achilles is to accept a ransom from Priam,
and give up the body."
On this Iris fleet as the wind went forth to carry his message.
Down she plunged into the dark sea midway between Samos and rocky
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Poems by Bronte Sisters: If thy love were like mine, how wild
Thy longings, even to pain,
For sunset soft, and moonlight mild,
To bring that hour again!
But oft, when in thine arms I lay,
I've seen thy dark eyes shine,
And deeply felt their changeful ray
Spoke other love than mine.
My love is almost anguish now,
It beats so strong and true;
'Twere rapture, could I deem that thou
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: length the following narrative, which is here condensed, and relieved
of the many digressions made by both the narrator and the listener.
CHAPTER II
THE PASSAGE OF THE BERESINA
Marechal Victor, when he started, about nine at night, from the
heights of Studzianka, which he had defended, as the rear-guard of the
retreating army, during the whole day of November 28th, 1812, left a
thousand men behind him, with orders to protect to the last possible
moment whichever of the two bridges across the Beresina might still
exist. This rear-guard had devoted itself to the task of saving a
frightful multitude of stragglers overcome by the cold, who
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