| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: confusion, vast stupid wars, hastily conceived laws, foolish
temporary triumphs of order, lapses, set-backs, despairs,
catastrophes, new beginnings, a multitudinous wilderness of time, a
nigh plotless drama of wrong-headed energies. In order to assuage
my parting from Isabel we had set ourselves to imagine great rewards
for our separation, great personal rewards; we had promised
ourselves success visible and shining in our lives. To console
ourselves in our separation we had made out of the BLUE WEEKLY and
our young Tory movement preposterously enormous things-as though
those poor fertilising touches at the soil were indeed the
germinating seeds of the millennium, as though a million lives such
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: communication. And Wilding drew his own contemptuous conclusions of
the Secretary of State's cautious policy. It was a fortnight later
- when London was settling down again from the diversion of excitement
created by the news of Argyle's defeat in Scotland - before Mr. Wilding
attempted to approach Sunderland again. He awaited a favourable
opportunity, and this he had when London was thrown into consternation
by the alarming news of the Duke of Somerset's urgent demand for
reinforcements. Unless he had them, he declared, the whole country was
lost, as he could not get the militia to stand, whilst Lord Stawell's
regiment were all fled and mostly gone over to the rebels at Bridgwater.
This was grave news, but it was followed in a few days by graver. The
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: but to the public, blinding them to all, but harming the artist not
at all. Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but
at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to
judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way
he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a
poet by the colour of his neck-tie. I said there should be a law,
but there is really no necessity for a new law: nothing could be
easier than to bring the ordinary critic under the head of the
criminal classes. But let us leave such an inartistic subject and
return to beautiful and comely things, remembering that the art
which would represent the spirit of modern newspapers would be
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