| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science,
like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like
M. Renan; a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate
himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of
others, to stand 'under the shelter of the wall,' as Plato puts it,
and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own
incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the
whole world. These, however, are exceptions. The majority of
people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism -
are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves
surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: my arm.
"After all, it may not be so much we may have to learn
before-- Just imagine this: four or five of their fighting
machines suddenly starting off--Heat-Rays right and left, and
not a Martian in 'em. Not a Martian in 'em, but men--men
who have learned the way how. It may be in my time, even--
those men. Fancy having one of them lovely things, with its
Heat-Ray wide and free! Fancy having it in control! What
would it matter if you smashed to smithereens at the end of
the run, after a bust like that? I reckon the Martians'll open
their beautiful eyes! Can't you see them, man? Can't you see
War of the Worlds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: caught her breath very quickly and her little heart jumped and then
thumped very loudly (that is the way it seemed to her) and she
remembered: Little apple trees all just alike, and little apple
trees in rows all just alike on top of those and again on top of
those until they came to a great row of big round red apples on top
of all.
Rut great grown people said: ``No, no, Bessie Bell, there are no
apple trees in all the world like that.''
And one time Bessie Bell was at a pretty house and somebody sat her
on a little low chair and said: `` Keep still, Bessie Bell.''
She kept still so long that at last she began to be afraid to move
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