| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Now Atlas had a fair posterity, and great treasures
derived from mines--among them that precious metal orichalcum; and there
was abundance of wood, and herds of elephants, and pastures for animals of
all kinds, and fragrant herbs, and grasses, and trees bearing fruit. These
they used, and employed themselves in constructing their temples, and
palaces, and harbours, and docks, in the following manner:--First, they
bridged over the zones of sea, and made a way to and from the royal palace
which they built in the centre island. This ancient palace was ornamented
by successive generations; and they dug a canal which passed through the
zones of land from the island to the sea. The zones of earth were
surrounded by walls made of stone of divers colours, black and white and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: them.
In one thing I must desire to be forgiven, that I talk more
sparingly of home-affairs: As it will be imprudence to discover
secrets of state, so it would be dangerous to my person; but in
smaller matters, and that are not of publick consequence, I shall
be very free; and the truth of my conjectures will as much appear
from those as the other. As for the most signal events abroad in
France, Flanders, Italy and Spain, I shall make no scruple to
predict them in plain terms: Some of them are of importance, and
I hope I shall seldom mistake the day they will happen;
therefore, I think good to inform the reader, that I all along
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: DUCHESS
Is that poison?
FIRST SOLDIER
Ay, madam, and very sure poison too.
DUCHESS
You may go, sir.
FIRST SOLDIER
By Saint James, a pretty hand! I wonder who she is. Some woman
who loved him, perhaps. [Exit.]
DUCHESS
[taking her mark off] At last!
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