| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: either by astuteness or else by force, and both are distrusted by him
who has been raised to power.
CHAPTER IV
WHY THE KINGDOM OF DARIUS, CONQUERED BY ALEXANDER, DID NOT REBEL
AGAINST THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER AT HIS DEATH
Considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a newly
acquired state, some might wonder how, seeing that Alexander the Great
became the master of Asia in a few years, and died whilst it was
scarcely settled (whence it might appear reasonable that the whole
empire would have rebelled), nevertheless his successors maintained
themselves, and had to meet no other difficulty than that which arose
The Prince |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: were I not careful, I moved still more slowly and cautiously.
After a time I came to a passage that seemed in some
mysterious way familiar to me, and presently, chancing to
glance within a chamber which led from the corridor I saw
three Mahars curled up in slumber upon a bed of skins.
I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief. It was
the same corridor and the same Mahars that I had intended
to have lead so important a role in our escape from Phutra.
Providence had indeed been kind to me, for the reptiles
still slept.
My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper
At the Earth's Core |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: social life which he never could have borne, the duchess encouraged
Etienne's tastes; she brought him Spanish "romanceros," Italian
"motets," books, sonnets, poems. The library of Cardinal d'Herouville
came into Etienne's possession, the use of which filled his life.
These readings, which his fragile health forbade him to continue for
many hours at a time, and his rambles among the rocks of his domain,
were interspersed with naive meditations which kept him motionless for
hours together before his smiling flowers--those sweet companions!--or
crouching in a niche of the rocks before some species of algae, a
moss, a seaweed, studying their mysteries; seeking perhaps a rhythm in
their fragrant depths, like a bee its honey. He often admired, without
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