| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver floor,
with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound."
No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than--as if a
shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a
floor of silver--I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic,
and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely
unnerved, I leaped to my feet; but the measured rocking movement
of Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat.
His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and throughout his whole
countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. But, as I placed my
hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong shudder over his
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: not temperate; and that he is temperate who does good, and not evil: for
temperance I define in plain words to be the doing of good actions.
And you may be very likely right in what you are saying; but I am curious
to know whether you imagine that temperate men are ignorant of their own
temperance?
I do not think so, he said.
And yet were you not saying, just now, that craftsmen might be temperate in
doing another's work, as well as in doing their own?
I was, he replied; but what is your drift?
I have no particular drift, but I wish that you would tell me whether a
physician who cures a patient may do good to himself and good to another
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: eye, en' I'll gamble my hoss thet there wasn't one who hed a
heartbeat till Lassiter got by. He went in Snell's saloon, an' as
there wasn't no gun play I had to go in, too. An' there, darn my
pictures, if Lassiter wasn't standin' to the bar, drinking en'
talkin' with Oldrin'."
"Oldring!" whispered Venters. His voice, as all fire and pulse
within him, seemed to freeze.
"Let go my arm!" exclaimed Judkins. "Thet's my bad arm. Sure it
was Oldrin'. What the hell's wrong with you, anyway? Venters, I
tell you somethin's wrong. You're whiter 'n a sheet. You can't be
scared of the rustler. I don't believe you've got a scare in you.
Riders of the Purple Sage |
