| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: All my life long, however, I have thought of my death. I was once
the friend of the great Pope Julius II.; and that illustrious
Pontiff, fearing lest the excessive excitability of my senses
should entangle me in mortal sin between the moment of my death
and the time of my anointing with the holy oil, gave me a flask
that contains a little of the holy water that once issued from
the rock in the wilderness. I have kept the secret of this
squandering of a treasure belonging to Holy Church, but I am
permitted to reveal the mystery in articulo mortis to my son. You
will find the flask in a drawer in that Gothic table that always
stands by the head of the bed. . . . The precious little crystal
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: Now, after Chaka had come to the Duguza kraal, for a while he sat
quiet, then the old thirst of blood came on him, and he sent his impis
against the people of the Pondos, and they destroyed that people, and
brought back their cattle. But the warriors might not rest; again they
were doctored for war, and sent out by tens of thousands to conquer
Sotyangana, chief of the people who live north of the Limpopo. They
went singing, after the king had looked upon them and bidden them
return victorious or not at all. Their number was so great that from
the hour of dawn till the sun was high in the heavens they passed the
gates of the kraal like countless herds of cattle--they the
unconquered. Little did they know that victory smiled on them no more;
Nada the Lily |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: them. They brought in a five year old bull, flayed it, made it
ready and divided it into joints; these they then cut carefully
up into smaller pieces and spitted them; they roasted them
sufficiently and served the portions round. Thus through the
livelong day to the going down of the sun they feasted, and
every man had his full share so that all were satisfied; but
when the sun set and it came on dark, they went to bed and
enjoyed the boon of sleep.
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the
sons of Autolycus went out with their hounds hunting, and
Ulysses went too. They climbed the wooded slopes of Parnassus
The Odyssey |
