| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: all their elegant aspirings.  Their ambition, being now no longer
restrained, broke out into a blaze, and they openly took the
field against the family of the butcher.  It is true that the
Lambs, having had the first start, had naturally an advantage of
them in the fashionable career.  They could speak a little bad
French, play the piano, dance quadrilles, and had formed high
acquaintances; but the Trotters were not to be distanced. 
When the Lambs appeared with two feathers in their hats, the
Miss Trotters mounted four, and of twice as fine colors. If the
Lambs gave a dance, the Trotters were sure not to be
behindhand: and though they might not boast of as good
 | The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: women who tempt Odysseus is not a dawn-maiden, but a goddess
of darkness; Kalypso answers to Venus-Ursula in the myth of
Tannhauser. Kirke, on the other hand, seems to be a
dawn-maiden, like Medeia, whom she resembles. In her the
wisdom of the dawn-goddess Athene, the loftiest of Greek
divinities, becomes degraded into the art of an enchantress.
She reappears, in the Arabian Nights, as the wicked Queen
Labe, whose sorcery none of her lovers can baffle, save Beder,
king of Persia.
 The myth of the great Theban hero, Oidipous, well illustrates
the multiplicity of conceptions which clustered about the
  Myths and Myth-Makers
 | The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: demanded of him all the keys of the rooms and offices of the
hotel.  These keys were given up to him instantly.  Each of them
had ticket attached to it, by which it might be recognized; and
from that moment the Sieur de la Coste was charged with the care
of all the doors and all the avenues.
 At eleven o'clock came in his turn Duhallier, captain of the
Guards, bringing with him fifty archers, who were distributed
immediately through the Hotel de Ville, at the doors assigned
them.
 At three o'clock came two companies of the Guards, one French,
the other Swiss.  The company of French guards was composed of
  The Three Musketeers
 |