The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: whenever the sun shone on the figure, the shadow of the finger
was discernible on the ground at a little distance from the
statue. Having marked the spot, he waited until midnight, and
then began to dig. At last his spade struck upon something
hard. It was a trap-door, below which a flight of marble steps
descended into a spacious hall, where many men were sitting in
solemn silence amid piles of gold and diamonds and long rows
of enamelled vases. Beyond this he found another room, a
gynaecium filled with beautiful women reclining on richly
embroidered sofas; yet here, too, all was profound silence. A
superb banqueting-hall next met his astonished gaze; then a
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: harshly told, but who heard it with courage; as one who loved you
indeed, but who hated herself so deeply that her love was hateful
to her; as one who sent you away and yet would have longed to keep
you for ever; who had no dearer hope than to forget you, and no
greater fear than to be forgotten.'
She had drawn towards the door as she spoke, her rich voice
sounding softer and farther away; and with the last word she was
gone, and I lay alone in the moonlit chamber. What I might have
done had not I lain bound by my extreme weakness, I know not; but
as it was there fell upon me a great and blank despair. It was not
long before there shone in at the door the ruddy glimmer of a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: of an experience comparatively restricted, and a reputation
confined to Scotland; and when he prepared his first models,
and exhibited them in Merchants' Hall, he can hardly be
acquitted of audacity. John Clerk of Eldin stood his friend
from the beginning, kept the key of the model room, to which
he carried `eminent strangers,' and found words of counsel and
encouragement beyond price. `Mr. Clerk had been personally
known to Smeaton, and used occasionally to speak of him to
me,' says my grandfather; and again: `I felt regret that I had
not the opportunity of a greater range of practice to fit me
for such an undertaking; but I was fortified by an expression
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