| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: latter times. The one toper says _fusty bandias_,
to which the other is obliged to reply, _strike
pantnere_, and the Friar passes many jests on
the King's want of memory, who sometimes
forgets the words of action. The night is spent
in this jolly pastime. Before his departure
in the morning, the King invites his reverend
host to Court, promises, at least, to requite his
hospitality, and expresses himself much pleased
with his entertainment. The jolly Hermit
at length agrees to venture thither, and to
 Ivanhoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: from the Ghost Mountain and passed through the gates of the kraal.
In front of my hut he saw Nada the Lily and saluted her, for each
remembered the other. Then he walked on to the place of assembly and
spoke to me.
"So the Star of Death has risen on the People of the Axe, Mopo," he
said. "Was it because of her coming that my grey people howled so
strangely last night? I cannot tell, but I know this, the Star shone
first on me this morning, and that is my doom. Well, she is fair
enough to be the doom of many, Mopo," and he laughed and passed on,
swinging the Watcher. But his words troubled me, though they were
foolish; for I could not but remember that wherever the beauty of Nada
 Nada the Lily |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: with careless curiosity. All he had captured by his first, keen,
instantly lowered, glance was the impression that her hair was
magnificently red and her eyes very black. It was a troubling
effect, but it had been evanescent; he had forgotten it almost till
very unexpectedly he saw her coming down the terrace slow and
eager, as if she were restraining herself, and with a rhythmic
upward undulation of her whole figure. The light from an open
window fell across her path, and suddenly all that mass of arranged
hair appeared incandescent, chiselled and fluid, with the daring
suggestion of a helmet of burnished copper and the flowing lines of
molten metal. It kindled in him an astonished admiration. But he
 Within the Tides |