The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.
The Anabasis is his story of the march to Persia
to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and
take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a
leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and
March 399 B.C.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
 Anabasis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: of ill-conditioned snarling cur--"
He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as our clothes.
And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of such a character where there
are no means of legal repression. And I knew well enough also that my double
there was no homicidal ruffian. I did not think of asking him for details,
and he told me the story roughly in brusque, disconnected sentences.
I needed no more. I saw it all going on as though I were myself inside
that other sleeping suit.
"It happened while we were setting a reefed foresail, at dusk.
Reefed foresail! You understand the sort of weather. The only sail we
had left to keep the ship running; so you may guess what it had been
 The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: gloves, gold buckles to his shoes and his breeches, and, lastly, a
touch of powder and a little queue tied with black ribbon. His face
was remarkable for a pair of eyebrows as thick as bushes, beneath
which sparkled his gray eyes; and for a square nose, thick and long,
which gave him somewhat the air of the abbes of former times. His
countenance did not belie him. Pere Cardot belonged to that race of
lively Gerontes which is now disappearing rapidly, though it once
served as Turcarets to the comedies and tales of the eighteenth
century. Uncle Cardot always said "Fair lady," and he placed in their
carriages, and otherwise paid attention to those women whom he saw
without protectors; he "placed himself at their disposition," as he
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