| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: observing, at his leisure, their buildings, ornaments, and the number of
their offerings, he saw in the temple of the Mother of the gods, the
statue of a virgin in brass, two cubits high, called the water-bringer.
Themistocles had caused this to be made and set up when he was surveyor
of waters at Athens, out of the fines of those whom he detected in
drawing off and diverting the public water by pipes for their private
use; and whether he had some regret to see this image in captivity, or
was desirous to let the Athenians see in what great credit and authority
he was with the king, he entered into a treaty with the governor of
Lydia to persuade him to send this statue back to Athens, which so
enraged the Persian officer, that he told him he would write the king
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: same as it had been; but the inner life had tremendously
changed. He could never become a happy man, he could never
shake utterly those haunting phantoms that had once been his
despair and madness; but he had assumed a task impossible for
any man save one like him, he had felt the meaning of it grow
strangely and wonderfully, and through that flourished up
consciousness of how passionately he now clung to this thing
which would blot out his former infamy. The iron fetters no
more threatened his hands; the iron door no more haunted his
dreams. He never forgot that he was free. Strangely, too, along
with this feeling of new manhood there gathered the force of
The Lone Star Ranger |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: a pale, interesting young man, with a rather common-looking wife -
his model, as I subsequently learned. I told him how much I
admired his drawings, at which he seemed very pleased, and I asked
him if he would show me some of his other work. As we were looking
over a portfolio, full of really very lovely things, - for Merton
had a most delicate and delightful touch, - I suddenly caught sight
of a drawing of the picture of Mr. W. H. There was no doubt
whatever about it. It was almost a FACSIMILE - the only difference
being that the two masks of Tragedy and Comedy were not suspended
from the marble table as they are in the picture, but were lying on
the floor at the young man's feet. "Where on earth did you get
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