| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: Yet all this while I said nothing to Umslopogaas of the truth as to
his birth, because on the journey there were many around us, and the
very trees have ears, and the same wind to which we whispered might
whisper to the king. Still I knew that the hour had come now when I
must speak, for it was in my mind to bring it about that Umslopogaas
should be proclaimed the son of Chaka, and be made king of the Zulus
in the place of Dingaan, his uncle. Yet all these things had gone
cross for us, because it was fated so, my father. Had I known that
Umslopogaas still lived when I slew Chaka, then I think that I could
have brought it about that he should be king. Or had things fallen out
as I planned, and the Lily maid been brought to Dingaan, and
Nada the Lily |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: PROTARCHUS: What are they?
SOCRATES: Is the good perfect or imperfect?
PROTARCHUS: The most perfect, Socrates, of all things.
SOCRATES: And is the good sufficient?
PROTARCHUS: Yes, certainly, and in a degree surpassing all other things.
SOCRATES: And no one can deny that all percipient beings desire and hunt
after good, and are eager to catch and have the good about them, and care
not for the attainment of anything which is not accompanied by good.
PROTARCHUS: That is undeniable.
SOCRATES: Now let us part off the life of pleasure from the life of
wisdom, and pass them in review.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: The sultana of the desert showed herself gracious to her slave; she
lifted her head, stretched out her neck and manifested her delight by
the tranquility of her attitude. It suddenly occurred to the soldier
that to kill this savage princess with one blow he must poniard her in
the throat.
He raised the blade, when the panther, satisfied no doubt, laid
herself gracefully at his feet, and cast up at him glances in which,
in spite of their natural fierceness, was mingled confusedly a kind of
good will. The poor Provencal ate his dates, leaning against one of
the palm trees, and casting his eyes alternately on the desert in
quest of some liberator and on his terrible companion to watch her
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