| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: that curtain or shutter had been deemed unnecessary; and when I
stooped down and put aside the spray of foliage shooting over it, I
could see all within. I could see clearly a room with a sanded
floor, clean scoured; a dresser of walnut, with pewter plates ranged
in rows, reflecting the redness and radiance of a glowing peat-fire.
I could see a clock, a white deal table, some chairs. The candle,
whose ray had been my beacon, burnt on the table; and by its light
an elderly woman, somewhat rough-looking, but scrupulously clean,
like all about her, was knitting a stocking.
I noticed these objects cursorily only--in them there was nothing
extraordinary. A group of more interest appeared near the hearth,
Jane Eyre |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: And the task of supplying cheering words, sympathy and pretty
playthings to all the young of his race did not seem a difficult
undertaking at all. But every year more and more children were born
into the world, and these, when they grew up, began spreading slowly
over all the face of the earth, seeking new homes; so that Santa Claus
found each year that his journeys must extend farther and farther from
the Laughing Valley, and that the packs of toys must be made larger
and ever larger.
So at length he took counsel with his fellow immortals how his work
might keep pace with the increasing number of children that none might
be neglected. And the immortals were so greatly interested in his
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: attention to the supply of their wants, and of them they conversed, to the
neglect of events that had happened in times long past; for mythology and
the enquiry into antiquity are first introduced into cities when they begin
to have leisure (Cp. Arist. Metaphys.), and when they see that the
necessaries of life have already been provided, but not before. And this
is the reason why the names of the ancients have been preserved to us and
not their actions. This I infer because Solon said that the priests in
their narrative of that war mentioned most of the names which are recorded
prior to the time of Theseus, such as Cecrops, and Erechtheus, and
Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, and the names of the women in like manner.
Moreover, since military pursuits were then common to men and women, the
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