| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: --the great elm-tree and the weather-beaten edifice.
The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like
a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward
storm and sunshine, but expressive also, of the long lapse of
mortal life, and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed
within. Were these to be worthily recounted, they would form a
narrative of no small interest and instruction, and possessing,
moreover, a certain remarkable unity, which might almost seem
the result of artistic arrangement. But the story would include
a chain of events extending over the better part of two centuries,
and, written out with reasonable amplitude, would fill a bigger
House of Seven Gables |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: but not for strategy. Rather was his example that of one who in each
emergency will take the lead; at a crisis where toil is needful, by
endurance; or in the battle-lists of bravery by prowess; or when the
function of the counsellor is uppermost, by the soundness of his
judgment. Of such a man I say, he has obtained by warrant indefeasible
the title peerless.
And if, as a means towards good workmanship, we count among the noble
inventions of mankind the rule and the plummet,[1] no less happily
shall we, who desire to attain a manly excellence, find in the virtue
of Agesilaus a pattern and example. He was God-fearing, he was just in
all his dealings, sound of soul and self-controlled. How then shall we
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: In the damp and shady places of the woods there exists a plant of
the same family which, for similar reasons, bears the even more
expressive name of Impatiens noli-me-tangere, or touch-me-not.
The capsule of the pansy expands into three valves, each scooped
out like a boat and laden in the middle with two rows of seeds.
When these valves dry, the edges shrivel, press upon the grains and
eject them.
Light seeds, especially those of the order of Compositae, have
aeronautic apparatus--tufts, plumes, fly-wheels--which keep them up
in the air and enable them to take distant voyages. In this way,
at the least breath, the seeds of the dandelion, surmounted by a
The Life of the Spider |
