| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: eclipse, or even an unusually dark day; and he shook the tail of
the last comet over the heads of his customers and disciples
until they were nearly frightened out of their wits. He has
lately got hold of a popular legend or prophecy, on which he
has been unusually eloquent. There has been a saying current
among the ancient sibyls, who treasure up these things, that
when the grasshopper on the top of the Exchange shook hands
with the dragon on the top of Bow Church Steeple, fearful
events would take place. This strange conjunction, it seems, has
as strangely come to pass. The same architect has been engaged
lately on the repairs of the cupola of the Exchange, and the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: Inert Plain), see Leake, ib. 54 foll.
On the next morning, as day broke, he sacrificed in front of the army;
and observing a mustering of men from the city of Mantinea on the
hills which overhung the rear of his army, he decided that he must
lead his troops out of the hollow by the quickest route. But he feared
lest, if he himself led off, the enemy might fall upon his rear. In
this dilemma he kept quiet; presenting a hostile front to the enemy,
he sent orders to his rear to face about to the right,[19] and so
getting into line behind his main body, to move forward upon him; and
in this way he at once extricated his troops from their cramped
position and kept continually adding to the weight and solidity of his
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: watching the stars and growing increasingly anxious as they went, not
too rapidly, toward the little house. There were no lights. Air raids
had grown common in Dunkirk, and there were no street lights in the
little city. Once on the highway Jean lighted the lamps, but left them
very low, and two miles from the little house he put them out altogether.
They traveled by starlight then, following as best they could the tall
trees that marked the road. Now and then they went astray at that, and
once they tilted into the ditch and had hard pulling to get out.
At the top of the street Jean stopped and went on foot a little way down.
He came back, with the report that new shells had made the way impassable;
and again Sara Lee shivered. If the little house was gone!
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