| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or
maimed; and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course
may be taken, to ease the nation of so grievous an incumbrance.
But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is
very well known, that they are every day dying, and rotting, by
cold and famine, and filth, and vermin, as fast as can be
reasonably expected. And as to the young labourers, they are now
in almost as hopeful a condition. They cannot get work, and
consequently pine away from want of nourishment, to a degree,
that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labour,
they have not strength to perform it, and thus the country and
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: singing most beautifully; the whole place resounds with it, let
us call her and see whether she is woman or goddess.'
"They called her and she came down, unfastened the door, and
bade them enter. They, thinking no evil, followed her, all
except Eurylochus, who suspected mischief and staid outside.
When she had got them into her house, she set them upon benches
and seats and mixed them a mess with cheese, honey, meal, and
Pramnian wine, but she drugged it with wicked poisons to make
them forget their homes, and when they had drunk she turned them
into pigs by a stroke of her wand, and shut them up in her
pig-styes. They were like pigs--head, hair, and all, and they
The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: it prevented him from accepting the prospect on the spot, with some
confidence moreover that he should do so even better if he could
have a little supper. Mrs. Moreen threw out more hints about the
changes that were to be looked for, but she was such a mixture of
smiles and shudders - she confessed she was very nervous - that he
couldn't tell if she were in high feather or only in hysterics. If
the family was really at last going to pieces why shouldn't she
recognise the necessity of pitching Morgan into some sort of
lifeboat? This presumption was fostered by the fact that they were
established in luxurious quarters in the capital of pleasure; that
was exactly where they naturally WOULD be established in view of
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