| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: each by his own peril. In this way they reached the shore.
When they were all seated near the fisherman's fire, they looked round
in vain for their guide with the light about him. The sea washed up
the steersman at the base of the cliff on which the cottage stood; he
was clinging with might and main to the plank as a sailor can cling
when death stares him in the face; the MAN went down and rescued the
almost exhausted seaman; then he said, as he held out a succoring hand
above the man's head:
"Good, for this once; but do not try it again; the example would be
too bad."
He took the skipper on his shoulders, and carried him to the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: themselves and bear false witness against me, alike with those who
listened to their instruction, must be conscious to themselves of a
deep impiety and injustice.[45] But for myself, what reason have I at
the present time to hold my head less high than I did before sentence
was passed against me, if I have not been convicted of having done any
of those things whereof my accusers accused me? It has not been proved
against me that I have sacrificed to novel divinities in place of Zeus
and Hera and the gods who form their company. I have not taken oath by
any other gods, nor named their name.
[44] {eipein auton [autos(?)]}, i.e. "according to Hermiogenes."
[45] Or, "must have a heavy load on their minds in the consciousness
 The Apology |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: thought, "seriously, I have long been thinking of it.... Leading
such a life I can't decide or think properly about anything. One's
head aches, and one spends all one's money. He asked me for tonight,
but I won't go."
"You give me your word of honor not to go?"
"On my honor!"
CHAPTER IX
It was past one o'clock when Pierre left his friend. It was a
cloudless, northern, summer night. Pierre took an open cab intending
to drive straight home. But the nearer he drew to the house the more
he felt the impossibility of going to sleep on such a night. It was
 War and Peace |