| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: reason of his reading and his excellent memory, he soon became
the best story-teller among his companions; and even the slight
training gained from his studies greatly broadened and
strengthened the strong reasoning faculty with which he had been
gifted by nature. His wit might be mischievous, but it was never
malicious, and his nonsense was never intended to wound or to
hurt the feelings. It is told of him that he added to his fund of
jokes and stories humorous imitations of the sermons of eccentric
preachers.
Very likely too much is made of all these boyish pranks. He grew
up very like his fellows. In only one particular did he differ
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: is staggering under the weight of a burden intolerable to one of
his temperament. The dead have come armed out of the grave to
impose on him a mission at once too great and too mean for him. He
is a dreamer, and he is called upon to act. He has the nature of
the poet, and he is asked to grapple with the common complexity of
cause and effect, with life in its practical realisation, of which
he knows nothing, not with life in its ideal essence, of which he
knows so much. He has no conception of what to do, and his folly
is to feign folly. Brutus used madness as a cloak to conceal the
sword of his purpose, the dagger of his will, but the Hamlet
madness is a mere mask for the hiding of weakness. In the making
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: Thus whirling round, together draws
Fools, fops, and rakes, for chaff and straws.
Hence we conclude, no women's hearts
Are won by virtue, wit, and parts;
Nor are the men of sense to blame
For breasts incapable of flame:
The fault must on the nymphs be placed,
Grown so corrupted in their taste.
The pleader having spoke his best,
Had witness ready to attest,
Who fairly could on oath depose,
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