| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "This is the third murder in two years," said the magistrate in a
low voice.
"And the most mysterious of all of them," added the clerk.
"Yes, it is," said the doctor. "And there is not a trace of the
body, you say? - or a clue as to where they might have taken the
dead - or dying man?"
With these words he looked carefully around the room, but there
was no more blood to be seen anywhere. Any spot would have been
clearly visible on the light-coloured floor. There was nothing
else to tell of the horrible crime that had been committed here,
nothing but the great, hideous, brown-red spot in the middle of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: Yes, Simonides (he answered), and what is more, I know the explanation
of the common verdict. The majority have come to the conclusion that
we monarchs eat and drink with greater pleasure than do ordinary
people, because they have got the notion, they themselves would make a
better dinner off the viands served at our tables than their own. And
doubtless some break in the monotony gives a fillip of pleasure. And
that explains why folk in general look forward with pleasure to high
days and holy days--mankind at large, but not the despot; his well-
stocked table groaning from day to day under its weight of viands
admits of no state occasions. So that, as far as this particular
pleasure, to begin with, goes, the pleasure of anticipation, the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: their hopes sank and faded also--sank to the dead level of
despair. Surrounded by guards, a mark for curious glances, with
pride for a companion, M. de Cocheforet could have borne himself
bravely; doubtless would bear himself bravely still when the end
came. But almost alone, moving forward through the grey evening
to a prison, with so many measured days before him, and nothing
to exhilarate or anger--in this condition it was little wonder if
he felt, and betrayed that he felt, the blood run slow in his
veins; if he thought more of the weeping wife and ruined home
which he had left behind him than of the cause in which he had
spent himself.
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