| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was excavated to the depth of
a hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried
round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It
received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round
the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further
inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from
it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea:
these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they
brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the
fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal
into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: family sit down to dinner. There was my majesty the prince and
lord of the whole island; I had the lives of all my subjects at my
absolute command; I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it
away, and no rebels among all my subjects. Then, to see how like a
king I dined, too, all alone, attended by my servants! Poll, as if
he had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to
me. My dog, who was now grown old and crazy, and had found no
species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and
two cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other,
expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of especial
favour.
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: I could find no trace of them anywhere. This looked like some new scheme
of villainy. . .
17 June.--This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed
cudgelling my brains, I heard without a crackling of whips
and pounding and scraping of horses' feet up the rocky path
beyond the courtyard. With joy I hurried to the window,
and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn
by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak,
with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin,
and high boots. They had also their long staves in hand.
I ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through
Dracula |
