| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: the empty white candour of a statue. You could
not call her good-looking. It was something much
more impressive. The simplicity of her apparel,
the opulence of her form, her imposing stature,
and the extraordinary sense of vigorous life that
seemed to emanate from her like a perfume exhaled
by a flower, made her beautiful with a beauty of a
rustic and olympian order. To watch her reaching
up to the clothes-line with both arms raised high
above her head, caused you to fall a musing in a
strain of pagan piety. Excellent Mrs. Hermann's
 Falk |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Ugu had to think quickly, for he realized that if he permitted Ozma to
rouse the inmates of her palace, all his plans and his present
successes were likely to come to naught. So he threw a scarf over the
girl's head so she could not scream, and pushed her into the dishpan
and tied her fast so she could not move. Then he climbed in beside
her and wished himself in his own wicker castle. The Magic Dishpan
was there in an instant, with all its contents, and Ugu rubbed his
hands together in triumphant joy as he realized that he now possessed
all the important magic in the Land of Oz and could force all the
inhabitants of that fairyland to do as he willed.
So quickly had his journey been accomplished that before daylight the
 The Lost Princess of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: have had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my
friend. It was, however, the only book immediately at hand; and
I indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now agitated
the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history of mental
disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness of
the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by
the wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he
hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale, I
might well have congratulated myself upon the success of my
design.
I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where
 The Fall of the House of Usher |