| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: his mistress slept. Then he commenced to cover her with his regard,
admiring her at his leisure, and had then no wish to utter any anthem
save the anthem of love. His happiness made his heart leap and bound
into his throat; thus, as was but natural, these two innocents burned
one against the other, but if they could have foreseen never would
have intermingled. Rene feasted his eyes, planning in his mind a
thousand fruitions of love that brought the water into his mouth. In
his ecstasy he let his book fall, which made him feel as sheepish as a
monk surprised at a child's tricks; but also from that he knew that
Blanche was sound asleep, for she did not stir, and the wily jade
would not have opened her eyes even at the greatest dangers, and
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Dem. You doe impeach your modesty too much,
To leaue the Citty, and commit your selfe
Into the hands of one that loues you not,
To trust the opportunity of night.
And the ill counsell of a desert place,
With the rich worth of your virginity
Hel. Your vertue is my priuiledge: for that
It is not night when I doe see your face.
Therefore I thinke I am not in the night,
Nor doth this wood lacke worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world.
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: held, as regards us, absolutely impossible: and this single principle
seemed to me sufficient to prevent me from desiring for the future
anything which I could not obtain, and thus render me contented; for since
our will naturally seeks those objects alone which the understanding
represents as in some way possible of attainment, it is plain, that if we
consider all external goods as equally beyond our power, we shall no more
regret the absence of such goods as seem due to our birth, when deprived
of them without any fault of ours, than our not possessing the kingdoms
of China or Mexico, and thus making, so to speak, a virtue of necessity,
we shall no more desire health in disease, or freedom in imprisonment,
than we now do bodies incorruptible as diamonds, or the wings of birds to
Reason Discourse |
