| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: prefer to seek the doubtful pleasures of society.
The cause of this desertion is plain enough. Although the vicar was
one of those to whom heaven is hereafter to belong in virtue of the
decree "Blessed are the poor in spirit," he could not, like some
fools, endure the annoyance that other fools caused him. Persons
without minds are like weeds that delight in good earth; they want to
be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within. The
incarnation of ennui to which they are victims, joined to the need
they feel of getting a divorce from themselves, produces that passion
for moving about, for being somewhere else than where they are, which
distinguishes their species,--and also that of all beings devoid of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: dwelling, his spear, his comb, his sleep, his dreams, his anger,
the mutual anger of several chiefs, his food, his pleasure in
eating, the food and eating of his pigeons, his ulcers, his cough,
his sickness, his recovery, his death, his being carried on a bier,
the exhumation of his bones, and his skull after death. To address
these demigods is quite a branch of knowledge, and he who goes to
visit a high chief does well to make sure of the competence of his
interpreter. To complete the picture, the same word signifies the
watching of a virgin and the warding of a chief; and the same word
means to cherish a chief and to fondle a favourite child.
Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear of a man so
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: Oh, Bess, what a strange, splendid thing for Oldring to do! It
all seems impossible. But, dear, you really are not what you
thought."
"Elizabeth Erne!" cried Jane Withersteen. "I loved your mother
and I see her in you!"
What had been incredible from the lips of men became, in the
tone, look, and gesture of a woman, a wonderful truth for Bess.
With little tremblings of all her slender body she rocked to and
fro on her knees. The yearning wistfulness of her eyes changed to
solemn splendor of joy. She believed. She was realizing
happiness. And as the process of thought was slow, so were the
Riders of the Purple Sage |
