| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Or on such days as this when large wet snowflakes
Drop heavily, with rain . . . whence rises this?
Well, so-and-so, this morning when I saw him,
Seemed much preoccupied, and would not smile;
And you, I saw too much; and you, too little;
And the word I chose for you, the golden word,
The word that should have struck so deep in purpose,
And set so many doors of wish wide open,
You let it fall, and would not stoop for it,
And smiled at me, and would not let me guess
Whether you saw it fall. . . These things, together,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: amazed, saw that his hundred Gray Men were fastened together like a
bundle of kindling-wood, and were unable to stir hand or foot.
And, while he still gazed open-mouthed at the strange sight, Prince
Marvel tilted the bundle of men up on its edge and rolled it out of
the door. It went rolling swiftly through the courtyard and bounded
down the castle steps, where the rope broke and the men fell sprawling
in all directions on the marble walk.
King Terribus sighed, for such treatment of his Gray Men, whom he
dearly loved, made him very unhappy.
But more than ever was he resolved to kill these impudent strangers,
who, in the very heart of his kingdom where thousands bowed to his
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: innkeeper, and his wife. This morning all the windows and doors were
found securely fastened.' At those words," continued the poor fellow,
"I had neither voice, nor strength, nor soul to answer. More sure of
my comrade than I could be of myself, I could not accuse him. I saw
that we were both thought equally guilty of the murder, and that I was
considered the most clumsy. I tried to explain the crime by
somnambulism, and so protect my friend; but there I rambled and
contradicted myself. No, I am lost. I read my condemnation in the eyes
of my judges. They smiled incredulously. All is over. No more
uncertainty. To-morrow I shall be shot. I am not thinking of myself,"
he went on after a pause, "but of my poor mother." Then he stopped,
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