| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: A viper ill to handle, that hath fled
The light in terror, or some snake, that wont
'Neath shade and sheltering roof to creep, and shower
Its bane among the cattle, hugs the ground,
Fell scourge of kine. Shepherd, seize stakes, seize stones!
And as he rears defiance, and puffs out
A hissing throat, down with him! see how low
That cowering crest is vailed in flight, the while,
His midmost coils and final sweep of tail
Relaxing, the last fold drags lingering spires.
Then that vile worm that in Calabrian glades
Georgics |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: clearly to my mind, which is that the country itself is made by nature
to provide the amplest resources. And with a view to establishing the
truth of this initial proposition I will describe the physical
features of Attica.
In the first place, the extraordinary mildness of the climate is
proved by the actual products of the soil. Numerous plants which in
many parts of the world appear as stunted leafless growths are here
fruit-bearing. And as with the soil so with the sea indenting our
coasts, the varied productivity of which is exceptionally great. Again
with regard to those kindly fruits of earth[3] which Providence
bestows on man season by season, one and all they commence earlier and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: From Yarmouth I resolved to pursue my first design, viz., to view
the seaside on this coast, which is particularly famous for being
one of the most dangerous and most fatal to the sailors in all
England - I may say in all Britain - and the more so because of the
great number of ships which are continually going and coming this
way in their passage between London and all the northern coasts of
Great Britain. Matters of antiquity are not my inquiry, but
principally observations on the present state of things, and, if
possible, to give such accounts of things worthy of recording as
have never been observed before; and this leads me the more
directly to mention the commerce and the navigation when I come to
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