| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: dwindled within me to a mere pin's head, like a taper on a foggy
night.
When I came a little more to myself, I found that there had sat
down beside me a very cheerful, rosy little German gentleman,
somewhat gone in drink, who was talking away to me, nineteen to the
dozen, as they say. I did my best to keep up the conversation; for
it seemed to me dimly as if something depended upon that. I heard
him relate, among many other things, that there were pickpockets on
the train, who had already robbed a man of forty dollars and a
return ticket; but though I caught the words, I do not think I
properly understood the sense until next morning; and I believe I
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: over again in the past, it will doubtless be so in the future.
The hatreds of the Revolution did not arise entirely from
divergence of belief. Other sentiments--envy, ambition, and
self-love--also engendered them. The rivalry of individuals
aspiring to power led the chiefs of the various groups in
succession to the scaffold.
We must remember, moreover, that the need of division and the
hatred resulting therefrom seem to be constituent elements of the
Latin mind. They cost our Gaulish ancestors their independence,
and had already struck Caesar.
``No city,'' he said, ``but was divided into two factions; no
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: was inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?"
"Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my
sorrow, for I was a galley-slave there for two years and more."
"You know Lima?"
"I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was
February come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate-
ship, the Cacafuogo,' they called her."
Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and
then--
"And what became of her, my lad?"
"God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her. I
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