| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: The merchant was much interested in my journey, and thought it
dangerous to sleep afield.
'There are the wolves,' said he; 'and then it is known you are an
Englishman. The English have always long purses, and it might very
well enter into some one's head to deal you an ill blow some
night.'
I told him I was not much afraid of such accidents; and at any rate
judged it unwise to dwell upon alarms or consider small perils in
the arrangement of life. Life itself, I submitted, was a far too
risky business as a whole to make each additional particular of
danger worth regard. 'Something,' said I, 'might burst in your
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: eyes. Yet it had to be done--and, indeed, I could
not have helped myself. I believe I trembled.
But directly my eyes had rested on my ship all
my fear vanished. It went off swiftly, like a bad
dream. Only that a dream leaves no shame be-
hind it, and that I felt a momentary shame at my
unworthy suspicions.
Yes, there she was. Her hull, her rigging filled
my eye with a great content. That feeling of life-
emptiness which had made me so restless for the
last few months lost its bitter plausibility, its evil
The Shadow Line |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: tomb!
In thee still liveth also the unrealisedness of my youth; and as life and
youth sittest thou here hopeful on the yellow ruins of graves.
Yea, thou art still for me the demolisher of all graves: Hail to thee, my
Will! And only where there are graves are there resurrections.--
Thus sang Zarathustra.
XXXIV. SELF-SURPASSING.
"Will to Truth" do ye call it, ye wisest ones, that which impelleth you and
maketh you ardent?
Will for the thinkableness of all being: thus do _I_ call your will!
All being would ye MAKE thinkable: for ye doubt with good reason whether
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
