| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: CHAPTER XXIII
MR. WILDING'S BOOTS
In the filth of the ditch, Mr. Wilding rolled over and lay prone. He
threw out his left arm, and rested his brow upon it to keep his face
above the mud. He strove to hold his breath, not that he might
dissemble death, but that he might avoid being poisoned by the foul
gases that, disturbed by his weight, bubbled up to choke him. His body
half sank and settled in the mud, and seen from above, as he was
presently seen by Wentworth - who ran forward with the sergeant's
lanthorn to assure himself that the work had been well done - he had all
the air of being not only dead but already half buried.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: you saw a carefully concerted plan in our liaison. Prudence is a
chatterbox. What need had I of the horses? It was an economy to
sell them. I don't use them and I don't spend anything on their
keep; if you love me, I ask nothing more, and you will love me
just as much without horses, or shawls, or diamonds."
All that was said so naturally that the tears came to my eyes as
I listened.
"But, my good Marguerite," I replied, pressing her hands
lovingly, "you knew that one day I should discover the sacrifice
you had made, and that the moment I discovered it I should allow
it no longer."
Camille |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: the pieces in the game of draughts which the player can move in such a way
that his opponents are unable to make any countermove. (Compare Republic.)
And perhaps, too, as regards riches you are of opinion that while facts
remain the same, there are arguments, no matter whether true or false,
which enable the user of them to prove that the wisest and the richest are
one and the same, although he is in the wrong and his opponents are in the
right. There would be nothing strange in this; it would be as if two
persons were to dispute about letters, one declaring that the word Socrates
began with an S, the other that it began with an A, and the latter could
gain the victory over the former.
Eryxias glanced at the audience, laughing and blushing at once, as if he
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