| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: you a good ride,' and he rode on hard. But let him ride as he
pleased, this interview with the miller was a chokepear, which he
could not swallow. He had begun by receiving a reproof in manners,
and ended by sustaining a defeat in logic, both from a man whom he
despised. All his old thoughts returned with fresher venom. And by
three in the afternoon, coming to the cross-roads for Beckstein,
Otto decided to turn aside and dine there leisurely. Nothing at
least could be worse than to go on as he was going.
In the inn at Beckstein he remarked, immediately upon his entrance,
an intelligent young gentleman dining, with a book in front of him.
He had his own place laid close to the reader, and with a proper
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: sound as of the march of an inevitable future. But in a gale, the
silent machinery of a sailing-ship would catch not only the power,
but the wild and exulting voice of the world's soul. Whether she
ran with her tall spars swinging, or breasted it with her tall
spars lying over, there was always that wild song, deep like a
chant, for a bass to the shrill pipe of the wind played on the sea-
tops, with a punctuating crash, now and then, of a breaking wave.
At times the weird effects of that invisible orchestra would get
upon a man's nerves till he wished himself deaf.
And this recollection of a personal wish, experienced upon several
oceans, where the soul of the world has plenty of room to turn over
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: with the Council.
Besides such necessary ecclesiastical affairs, there would be
also in the political estate innumerable matters of great
importance to improve. There is the disagreement between the
princes and the states; usury and avarice have burst in like a
flood, and have become lawful [are defended with a show of
right]; wantonness, lewdness, extravagance in dress, gluttony,
gambling, idle display, with all kinds of bad habits and
wickedness, insubordination of subjects, of domestics and
laborers of every trade, also the exactions [and most
exorbitant selling prices] of the peasants (and who can
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