| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: both at first and for some time afterwards, by every distressing or
displeasing sensation and emotion,--by hunger, pain, anger, jealousy, fear,
&c. At such times the muscles round the eyes are strongly contracted;
and this, as I believe, explains to a large extent the act of frowning
during the remainder of our lives. I repeatedly observed my own infants,
from under the age of one week to that of two or three months,
and found that when a screaming-fit came on gradually, the first sign
was the contraction of the corrugators, which produced a slight frown,
quickly followed by the contraction of the other muscles round the eyes.
When an infant is uncomfortable or unwell, little frowns--as I record
in my notes--may be seen incessantly passing like shadows over its face;
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: is pretty well concealed; one would hardly know it was there. Can I
see your husband a moment, madam?"
No, he was gone to Brixton, and might not return before morning.
"Very well, madam, it is no matter. I merely wanted to leave that
sack in his care, to be delivered to the rightful owner when he
shall be found. I am a stranger; he does not know me; I am merely
passing through the town to-night to discharge a matter which has
been long in my mind. My errand is now completed, and I go pleased
and a little proud, and you will never see me again. There is a
paper attached to the sack which will explain everything. Good-
night, madam."
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: "Ah! ah!" I cried, "now I know thee! Miserable woman, why hast thou
prostituted thyself? In the age of thy passions, in the time of thy
prosperity, the grace and purity of thy youth were forgotten.
Forgetful of thy heroic devotion, thy pure life, thy abundant faith,
thou didst resign thy primitive power and thy spiritual supremacy for
fleshly power. Thy linen vestments, thy couch of moss, the cell in the
rock, bright with rays of the Light Divine, was forsaken; thou hast
sparkled with diamonds, and shone with the glitter of luxury and
pride. Then, grown bold and insolent, seizing and overturning all
things in thy course like a courtesan eager for pleasure in her days
of splendor, thou hast steeped thyself in blood like some queen
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