| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: 'Why, you're all covered with hoar-frost, old fellow!' said the
eldest brother, looking at Nikita's snow-covered face, eyes,
and beard.
Nikita took off his coat, shook it again, hung it up beside the
oven, and came up to the table. He too was offered vodka. He
went through a moment of painful hesitation and nearly took up
the glass and emptied the clear fragrant liquid down his
throat, but he glanced at Vasili Andreevich, remembered his
oath and the boots that he had sold for drink, recalled the
cooper, remembered his son for whom he had promised to buy a
horse by spring, sighed, and declined it.
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: guarded against the cold. For our foot journey we discarded the
heaviest of our flying furs, and took with us a small outfit consisting
of pocket compass, hand camera, light provisions, voluminous notebooks
and paper, geologist’s hammer and chisel, specimen bags, coil
of climbing rope, and powerful electric torches with extra batteries;
this equipment having been carried in the plane on the chance
that we might be able to effect a landing, take ground pictures,
make drawings and topographical sketches, and obtain rock specimens
from some bare slope, outcropping, or mountain cave. Fortunately
we had a supply of extra paper to tear up, place in a spare specimen
bag, and use on the ancient principle of hare and hounds for marking
At the Mountains of Madness |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: priests among them. By one means or another the people will seek to
leave the city. Divide yourselves, therefore, into three divisions,
and take up your posts before the three gates; five kurens before the
principal gate, and three kurens before each of the others. Let the
Dadikivsky and Korsunsky kurens go into ambush and Taras and his men
into ambush too. The Titarevsky and Timoschevsky kurens are to guard
the baggage train on the right flank, the Scherbinovsky and
Steblikivsky on the left, and to select from their ranks the most
daring young men to face the foe. The Lyakhs are of a restless nature
and cannot endure a siege, and perhaps this very day they will sally
forth from the gates. Let each hetman inspect his kuren; those whose
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
