| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: and there was a genial warmth in the air. It was almost like a morning
in May.
Gradually the events of the preceding night crept with silent,
blood-stained feet into his brain and reconstructed themselves
there with terrible distinctness. He winced at the memory of all
that he had suffered, and for a moment the same curious feeling
of loathing for Basil Hallward that had made him kill him as he sat
in the chair came back to him, and he grew cold with passion.
The dead man was still sitting there, too, and in the sunlight now.
How horrible that was! Such hideous things were for the darkness,
not for the day.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: a mortal fear of the police.
Sir Clifford asked to see me, so I went to him. He talked around things
and seemed annoyed with me. Then he asked if I knew that even her
ladyship's name had been mentioned. I said I never listened to scandal,
and was surprised to hear this bit from Sir Clifford himself. He said,
of course it was a great insult, and I told him there was Queen Mary on
a calendar in the scullery, no doubt because Her Majesty formed part of
my harem. But he didn't appreciate the sarcasm. He as good as told me I
was a disreputable character also walked about with my breeches'
buttons undone, and I as good as told him he'd nothing to unbutton
anyhow, so he gave me the sack, and I leave on Saturday week, and the
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: reigns of two emperors, and only seven monarchs had sat upon the
throne, a smaller number than ever ruled during the same period
in all Chinese history. These two Emperors, Kang Hsi and Chien
Lung, the second and fourth, had each reigned for sixty years,
the most brilliant period of the "Great Pure Dynasty," unless we
except the last six years of the Empress Dowager's regency. The
other ninety-eight years saw five rulers rise and pass away,
each one becoming weaker than his predecessor both in character
and in physique, until with the death of her son, Tung Chih, the
dynasty was left without a direct heir.
The decay of the imperial house, the encroachments of the
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