| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: of the gardens and dells of the Muses; they, like the bees, winging their
way from flower to flower. And this is true. For the poet is a light and
winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been
inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when
he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter
his oracles. Many are the noble words in which poets speak concerning the
actions of men; but like yourself when speaking about Homer, they do not
speak of them by any rules of art: they are simply inspired to utter that
to which the Muse impels them, and that only; and when inspired, one of
them will make dithyrambs, another hymns of praise, another choral strains,
another epic or iambic verses--and he who is good at one is not good at any
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: languid lids raise themselves; there is a keen, intent look upon the face
as he listens for something. Then he leans back in his chair, fills his
glass from the silver flask in his bag, and resumes his old posture.
Presently the door opens noiselessly. It is Lyndall, followed by Doss.
Quietly as she enters, he hears her, and turns.
"I thought you were not coming."
"I waited till all had gone to bed. I could not come before."
She removed the shawl that enveloped her, and the stranger rose to offer
her his chair; but she took her seat on a low pile of sacks before the
window.
"I hardly see why I should be outlawed after this fashion," he said,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: Confederacy vitally needed. People frenziedly bought these
luxuries with the money they had today, fearing that tomorrow's
prices would be higher and the money worthless.
To make matters worse, there was only one railroad line from
Wilmington to Richmond and, while thousands of barrels of flour
and boxes of bacon spoiled and rotted in wayside stations for want
of transportation, speculators with wines, taffetas and coffee to
sell seemed always able to get their goods to Richmond two days
after they were landed at Wilmington.
The rumor which had been creeping about underground was now being
openly discussed, that Rhett Butler not only ran his own four
Gone With the Wind |
