| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: reared its burnished domes and vividly coloured towers.
About the walled city the red man saw a huge encampment
of the green warriors of the dead sea-bottoms, and as
he let his eyes rove carefully over the city he realized
that here was no deserted metropolis of a dead past.
But what city could it be? His studies had taught him
that in this little-explored portion of Barsoom the fierce
tribe of Torquasian green men ruled supreme, and that
as yet no red man had succeeded in piercing to the heart
of their domain to return again to the world of civilization.
The men of Torquas had perfected huge guns with
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: resting-place of the man who made Scotland over again in
his own image, the indefatigable, undissuadable John
Knox. He sleeps within call of the church that so often
echoed to his preaching.
Hard by the reformer, a bandy-legged and garlanded
Charles Second, made of lead, bestrides a tun-bellied
charger. The King has his backed turned, and, as you
look, seems to be trotting clumsily away from such a
dangerous neighbour. Often, for hours together, these
two will be alone in the Close, for it lies out of the
way of all but legal traffic. On one side the south wall
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: Madame de Merret, who, without any reflection on others, was the
handsomest and richest heiress in our parts. She had about twenty
thousand francs a year. All the town was at the wedding; the bride was
pretty and sweet-looking, quite a gem of a woman. Oh, they were a
handsome couple in their day!'
" 'And were they happy together?'
" 'Hm, hm! so-so--so far as can be guessed, for, as you may suppose,
we of the common sort were not hail-fellow-well-met with them.--Madame
de Merret was a kind woman and very pleasant, who had no doubt
sometimes to put up with her husband's tantrums. But though he was
rather haughty, we were fond of him. After all, it was his place to
La Grande Breteche |
