| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: was one o'clock at night, the time when nature is buried in the
soundest, sweetest sleep before the dawn. That time nature was
not sleeping, and one could not call the night a still one.
Corncrakes, quails, nightingales, and woodcocks were calling,
crickets and grasshoppers were chirruping. There was a light mist
over the grass, and clouds were scurrying straight
ahead across the sky near the moon. Nature was awake, as though
afraid of missing the best moments of her life.
I walked along a narrow path at the very edge of a railway
embankment. The moonlight glided over the lines which were
already covered with dew. Great shadows from the clouds kept
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: their eyes; and they came up the cliffs towards him more
swiftly than the sea-gull, and yet they never moved their
feet, nor did the breeze stir the robes about their limbs;
only the wings of the youth's sandals quivered, like a hawk's
when he hangs above the cliff. And Perseus fell down and
worshipped, for he knew that they were more than man.
But Athene stood before him and spoke gently, and bid him
have no fear. Then -
'Perseus,' she said, 'he who overcomes in one trial merits
thereby a sharper trial still. You have braved Polydectes,
and done manfully. Dare you brave Medusa the Gorgon?'
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: of those who have, either through unusual
gifts of nature or through clever artifice,
seemingly submitted to tests which we have been
taught to believe were far and away beyond
the outposts of human endurance. By the
introduction of these thrills each notable
newcomer has endeavored to go his predecessors
one better, and the issue of challenges to all
comers to match these startling effects has
been by no means infrequent, but I fail to
discover a single acceptance of such a challenge.
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
