| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: then he investigated the box. It contained a quantity
of cylindrical bits of metal, cone-shaped at one
end and flat at the other, with a projecting rim.
They were all quite green and dull, coated with years
of verdigris.
Tarzan removed a handful of them from the box and examined them.
He rubbed one upon another and discovered that the green
came off, leaving a shiny surface for two-thirds of
their length and a dull gray over the cone-shaped end.
Finding a bit of wood he rubbed one of the cylinders rapidly
and was rewarded by a lustrous sheen which pleased him.
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: boar.[7] To capture a friend against his will is a toilsome business,
and to bind him in fetters like a slave by no means easy. Those who
are so treated are apt to become foes instead of friends.[8]
[7] Reading {kaproi}, al. {ekhthroi}, "an enemy."
[8] Or, "Hate rather than friendship is the outcome of these methods."
Cri. But how convert them into friends?
Soc. There are certain incantations, we are told, which those who know
them have only to utter, and they can make friends of whom they list;
and there are certain philtres also which those who have the secret of
them may administer to whom they like and win their love.
Cri. From what source shall we learn them?
The Memorabilia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: weaker natures no room for triumph.
The thought was no sooner entertained than it was gone.
'And so you are back at last, M. de Berault,' he said gently. 'I
have been expecting to see you since nine this morning.'
'Your Eminence knew, then--' I muttered.
'That you returned to Paris by the Orleans gate last evening
alone?' he answered, fitting together the ends of his fingers,
and looking at me over them with inscrutable eyes. 'Yes, I knew
all that last night. And now, of your business. You have been
faithful and diligent, I am sure. Where is he?'
I stared at him and was dumb. In some way the strange things I
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