| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: he ventures to touch the plump wench. He has gone too far, daring
youth that he is! Panic-stricken, he takes a header, hanging by
his safety-line. It is only for a moment, however. Up he comes
again. He has learnt, from certain symptoms, that we are at last
yielding to his blandishments.
With his legs and especially with his palpi, or feelers, he teases
the buxom gossip, who answers with curious skips and bounds.
Gripping a thread with her front tarsi, or fingers, she turns, one
after the other, a number of back somersaults, like those of an
acrobat on the trapeze. Having done this, she presents the under-
part of her paunch to the dwarf and allows him to fumble at it a
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: flecked here and there by the dark arabesques of waving shadows.
Far into the distance curved the line of flickering gas-lamps, and
outside a little walled-in house stood a solitary hansom, the
driver asleep inside. He walked hastily in the direction of
Portland Place, now and then looking round, as though he feared
that he was being followed. At the corner of Rich Street stood two
men, reading a small bill upon a hoarding. An odd feeling of
curiosity stirred him, and he crossed over. As he came near, the
word 'Murder,' printed in black letters, met his eye. He started,
and a deep flush came into his cheek. It was an advertisement
offering a reward for any information leading to the arrest of a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: a lady may traverse our streets all day, going and coming
as she chooses, and she will never be molested by any man;
but if a lady, unattended, walks abroad in the streets
of London, even at noonday, she will be pretty likely
to be accosted and insulted--and not by drunken sailors,
but by men who carry the look and wear the dress of gentlemen.
It is maintained that these people are not gentlemen,
but are a lower sort, disguised as gentlemen. The case
of Colonel Valentine Baker obstructs that argument,
for a man cannot become an officer in the British army
except he hold the rank of gentleman. This person,
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