| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: Dragon, proudly, as it breathed out red and yellow flames and made
them curl in circles around its horns. "I guess there's no need for
me to suggest terror to any one that happens to see me," it added,
winking one of the pie-plate eyes at King Terribus.
The king looked at the monster critically, and it really seemed to him
that it was a frightful thing to behold. So he curbed his anger and
said, in his ordinary sweet voice:
"I have called you here to destroy these two strangers."
"How?" asked the Dragon, looking upon Prince Marvel and Nerle
with interest.
"I am not particular," answered the king. "You may consume them with
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: in no wise limited by our experience? Obviously we should be
bound to admit that in sound philosophy this conclusion is just
as likely to be true as the other. We should, indeed, warn him
not to call on us to help him to establish it by scientific
arguments; and we should remind him that he must not make illicit
use of his extra-experiential hypotheses by bringing them into
the treatment of scientific questions that lie within the range
of experience. In science, for example, we make no use of the
conception of a "spiritual substance" (or of a "material
substance" either), because we can get along sufficiently well by
dealing solely with qualities. But with this general
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: facilitate the attainment of an aim worthy of men, but always
make it more difficult. This is my fifth contention.
How about the human race? If we admit that celibacy is better
and nobler than marriage, evidently the human race will come to
an end. But, if the logical conclusion of the argument is that
the human race will become extinct, the whole reasoning is wrong.
To that I reply that the argument is not mine; I did not invent
it. That it is incumbent on mankind so to strive, and that
celibacy is preferable to marriage, are truths revealed by Christ
1,900 years ago, set forth in our catechisms, and professed by us
as followers of Christ.
The Kreutzer Sonata |
