| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: and wave us on. We trample them down. What matter? They can fight no
more. Then we meet Zwide rushing to greet us, as bull meets bull. Ou!
my father, I know no more. Everything grows red. That fight! that
fight! We swept them away. When it was done there was nothing to be
seen, but the hillside was black and red. Few fled; few were left to
fly. We passed over them like fire; we ate them up. Presently we
paused, looking for the foe. All were dead. The host of Zwide was no
more. Then we mustered. Ten regiments had looked upon the morning sun;
three regiments saw the sun sink; the rest had gone where no suns
shine.
Such were our battles in the days of Chaka!
Nada the Lily |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford
Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a
pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,
and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land
and property in Scillus, where he lived for many
years before having to move once more, to settle
in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.
The Anabasis is his story of the march to Persia
to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and
take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a
Anabasis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: folks.
Madame Piedefer left the table to say to her daughter, "Do go and talk
to the ladies; they are quite annoyed by your behavior."
Lousteau could not fail to see Dinah's great superiority over the best
women of Sancerre; she was better dressed, her movements were
graceful, her complexion was exquisitely white by candlelight--in
short, she stood out against this background of old faces, shy and
ill-dressed girls, like a queen in the midst of her court. Visions of
Paris faded from his brain; Lousteau was accepting the provincial
surroundings; and while he had too much imagination to remain
unimpressed by the royal splendor of this chateau, the beautiful
The Muse of the Department |
