| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: of his resurrection from the grave after death. It was not only
the earliest, but the most essential to the success of the new
religion. Christianity might have overspread the Roman Empire,
and maintained its hold upon men's faith until to-day, without
the dogmas of the incarnation and the Trinity; but without the
dogma of the resurrection it would probably have failed at the
very outset. Its lofty morality would not alone have sufficed to
insure its success. For what men needed then, as indeed they
still need, and will always need, was not merely a rule of life
and a mirror to the heart, but also a comprehensive and
satisfactory theory of things, a philosophy or theosophy. The
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: his brain; every nerve quivers with horrible shooting pains, and he
writhes in torture. He suffers so much in his head that he did not
even feel the moxas they used formerly to apply to relieve it; but
Monsieur Brousson, who is now his physician, has forbidden that
remedy, declaring that the trouble is a nervous affection, an
inflammation of the nerves, for which leeches should be applied to the
neck, and opium to the head. As a result, the attacks are not so
frequent; they appear now only about once a year, and always late in
the autumn. When he recovers, Taillefer says repeatedly that he would
far rather die than endure such torture."
"Then he must suffer terribly!" said a broker, considered a wit, who
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: Which is meager and hollow, but crisp:
Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,
With a flavor of Will-o-the-wisp.
"Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
That it carries too far, when I say
That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
And dines on the following day.
"The third is its slowness in taking a jest.
Should you happen to venture on one,
It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
And it always looks grave at a pun.
The Hunting of the Snark |
