| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: experience of life, and to those natural laws whose universal
influence the early Greek physical philosophers had already made
known to the world of thought. Other legends, such as the suckling
of Cyrus by a bitch, or the feather-rain of northern Europe, are
rationalised and explained into a woman's name and a fall of snow.
The supernatural origin of the Scythian nation, from the union of
Hercules and the monstrous Echidna, is set aside by him for the
more probable account that they were a nomad tribe driven by the
Massagetae from Asia; and he appeals to the local names of their
country as proof of the fact that the Kimmerians were the original
possessors.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: He was complete but for the head. A headless corpse! The cigar
dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss
quite audible in the absolute stillness of all things under heaven.
At that I suppose he raised up his face, a dimly pale oval
in the shadow of the ship's side. But even then I could only
barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired head.
However, it was enough for the horrid, frost-bound sensation
which had gripped me about the chest to pass off.
The moment of vain exclamations was past, too. I only climbed
on the spare spar and leaned over the rail as far as I could,
to bring my eyes nearer to that mystery floating alongside.
The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: "Ruined?" said the young man. "Are you ruined, like me? Are you,
after a life of indulgence, come to such a pass that you can only
indulge yourself in one thing more? Are you" - he kept lowering
his voice as he went on - "are you going to give yourselves that
last indulgence? Are you going to avoid the consequences of your
folly by the one infallible and easy path? Are you going to give
the slip to the sheriff's officers of conscience by the one open
door?"
Suddenly he broke off and attempted to laugh.
"Here is your health!" he cried, emptying his glass, "and good
night to you, my merry ruined men."
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