| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: Concerning the beauty of the god I have said enough; and yet there remains
much more which I might say. Of his virtue I have now to speak: his
greatest glory is that he can neither do nor suffer wrong to or from any
god or any man; for he suffers not by force if he suffers; force comes not
near him, neither when he acts does he act by force. For all men in all
things serve him of their own free will, and where there is voluntary
agreement, there, as the laws which are the lords of the city say, is
justice. And not only is he just but exceedingly temperate, for Temperance
is the acknowledged ruler of the pleasures and desires, and no pleasure
ever masters Love; he is their master and they are his servants; and if he
conquers them he must be temperate indeed. As to courage, even the God of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: so unmannerly as to shut you out."
"Stay, brother!" he cried. "Have you no fun about you? or do you
want to get me thrashed? I've brought a letter from old Heasyoasy
to Mr. Belflower." He showed me a letter as he spoke. "And I
say, mate," he added, "I'm mortal hungry."
"Well," said I, "come into the house, and you shall have a bite
if I go empty for it."
With that I brought him in and set him down to my own place,
where he fell-to greedily on the remains of breakfast, winking to
me between whiles, and making many faces, which I think the poor
soul considered manly. Meanwhile, my uncle had read the letter
Kidnapped |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: natural, the tones of her voice were divinely sweet,--this was all
that she suffered others to discover. In her complete seclusion, her
sadness, her beauty so passionately obscured, nay, almost blighted,
there was so much to charm, that several young gentlemen fell in love;
but the more sincere the lover, the more timid he became; and besides,
the lady inspired awe, and it was a difficult matter to find enough
courage to speak to her. Finally, if a few of the bolder sort wrote to
her, their letters must have been burned unread. It was Mme.
Willemsens' practice to throw all the letters which she received into
the fire, as if she meant that the time spent in Touraine should be
untroubled by any outside cares even of the slightest. She might have
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