| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: after the period in which the play was written; the women were not.
I saw no inconsistency. Their talk seemed to open to one
the brilliant world in which they lived; every sentence made
one older and wiser, every pleasantry enlarged one's horizon.
One could experience excess and satiety without the inconvenience
of learning what to do with one's hands in a drawing-room!
When the characters all spoke at once and I missed some
of the phrases they flashed at each other, I was in misery.
I strained my ears and eyes to catch every exclamation.
The actress who played Marguerite was even then old-fashioned,
though historic. She had been a member of Daly's famous New
 My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: than many, that know it their duty to conceal. It is
true there be some affairs, which require extreme
secrecy, which will hardly go beyond one or two
persons, besides the king: neither are those coun-
sels unprosperous; for, besides the secrecy, they
conunonly go on constantly, in one spirit of direc-
tion, without distraction. But then it must be a
prudent king, such as is able to grind with a hand-
mill; and those inward counsellors had need also
be wise men, and especially true and trusty to the
king's ends; as it was with King Henry the Seventh
 Essays of Francis Bacon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head,
Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.
A blight is on our harvest in the ear,
A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds,
A blight on wives in travail; and withal
Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague
Hath swooped upon our city emptying
The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm
Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.
Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit,
I and these children; not as deeming thee
 Oedipus Trilogy |