| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: in the presence of him whom he dearly loves,[24] he rises to a height
above himself, being incapable of aught base or foul in word or deed
in sight of him?[25] But fondly dreaming that the eye of virtue is
closed to them, they are guilty of many a base thing and foul before
her very face, who is hidden from their eyes. Yet she is present
everywhere, being dowered with immortality; and those who are perfect
in goodness[26] she honours, but the wicked she thrusts aside from
honour. If only men could know that she regards them, how eagerly
would they rush to the embrace of toilful training and
tribulation,[27] by which alone she is hardly taken; and so should
they gain the mastery over her, and she should be laid captive at
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: Some minutes after the departure of the projectile, one of
the bodies moved, shook its arms, lifted its head, and finally
succeeded in getting on its knees. It was Michel Ardan. He felt
himself all over, gave a sonorous "Hem!" and then said:
"Michel Ardan is whole. How about the others?"
The courageous Frenchman tried to rise, but could not stand.
His head swam, from the rush of blood; he was blind; he was a
drunken man.
"Bur-r!" said he. "It produces the same effect as two bottles
of Corton, though perhaps less agreeable to swallow."
Then, passing his hand several times across his forehead and
From the Earth to the Moon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: cover up a power of sins, Tom. I'd 'most be glad you'd
run off and acted so bad. But it ain't reasonable; be-
cause, why didn't you tell me, child?"
"Why, you see, when you got to talking about the
funeral, I just got all full of the idea of our coming and
hiding in the church, and I couldn't somehow bear to
spoil it. So I just put the bark back in my pocket and
kept mum."
"What bark?"
"The bark I had wrote on to tell you we'd gone
pirating. I wish, now, you'd waked up when I kissed
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
