| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: cleared out of their position. That chief of yours is a
wonderful soldier!"
Standing on the crest of the hill, they could easily
sight one side of the Bufa peak. Its highest crag spread out
like the feathered head of a proud Aztec king. The three-
hundred-foot slope was literally covered with dead, their
hair matted, their clothes clotted with grime and blood.
A host of ragged women, vultures of prey, ranged over
the tepid bodies of the dead, stripping one man bare, de-
spoiling another, robbing from a third his dearest pos-
sessions.
 The Underdogs |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: it is a selfish thing to seek. I ask of you that you will be
faithful to me, and come fair weather or foul, will wed no other
man till you know me dead.'
'It is something to promise, Thomas, for with time come changes.
Still I am so sure of myself that I promise--nay I swear it. Of
you I cannot be sure, but things are so with us women that we must
risk all upon a throw, and if we lose, good-bye to happiness.'
Then we talked on, and I cannot remember what we said, though these
words that I have written down remain in my mind, partly because of
their own weight, and in part because of all that came about in the
after years.
 Montezuma's Daughter |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: king's meat? He gives the usual answer; and a covered basket is put
before him, out of which he is to take--in Median fashion--what he
likes. He finds in it the head and hands and feet of his own son.
Like a true Eastern he shows no signs of horror. The king asks him
if he knew what flesh he had been eating. He answers that he knew
perfectly. That whatever the king did pleased him.
Like an Eastern courtier, he knew how to dissemble, but not to
forgive, and bided his time. The Magi, to their credit, told
Astyages that his dream had been fulfilled, that Cyrus--as we must
now call the foundling prince--had fulfilled it by becoming a king
in play, and the boy is let to go back to his father and his hardy
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