| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: an idea has been proved it can be productive of effective action
even on cultivated minds. This fact may be quickly appreciated
by noting how slight is the influence of the clearest
demonstration on the majority of men. Evidence, if it be very
plain, may be accepted by an educated person, but the convert
will be quickly brought back by his unconscious self to his
original conceptions. See him again after the lapse of a few
days and he will put forward afresh his old arguments in exactly
the same terms. He is in reality under the influence of anterior
ideas, that have become sentiments, and it is such ideas alone
that influence the more recondite motives of our acts and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: Turks of Suaquem have gardens on the firm land, not above a musket
shot from the island, which supply them with many excellent herbs
and fruits, of which I doubt whether there be not a greater quantity
on this little spot than on the whole coast of Africa besides, from
Melinda to Suez. For if we except the dates which grow between Suez
and Suaquem, the ground does not yield the least product; all the
necessaries of life, even water, is wanting. Nothing can support
itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches, which devour
stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number of eggs,
part of which they break to feed their young with. These fowls, of
which I have seen many, are very tame, and when they are pursued,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: Stealthily, swiftly, the measureless sea-flood was rising.
--" Messieurs--mesdames, ce n'est rien. Nothing serious, ladies,
I assure you ... Mais nous en avons vu bien souvent, les
inondations comme celle-ci; ca passe vite! The water will go down
in a few hours, ladies;--it never rises higher than this; il n'y
a pas le moindre danger, je vous dis! Allons! il n'y a--My God!
what is that?" ...
For a moment there was a ghastly hush of voices. And through
that hush there burst upon the ears of all a fearful and
unfamiliar sound, as of a colossal cannonade rolling up from the
south, with volleying lightnings. Vastly and swiftly, nearer and
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