| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: the Picts, was true or partly true of some anterior and
perhaps Lappish savages, small of stature, black of hue,
dwelling underground - possibly also the distillers of some
forgotten spirit? See Mr. Campbell's TALES OF THE WEST
HIGHLANDS.
CHRISTMAS AT SEA
THE sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.
They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: And refreshing in his face.
Sort of man you'd like to be:
Balanced well and truly square;
Patient in adversity,
Generous when his skies were fair.
Never lied to friend or foe,
Never rash in word or deed,
Quick to come and slow to go
In a neighbor's time of need.
Never rose to wealth or fame,
Simply lived, and simply died,
A Heap O' Livin' |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: how a miracle - as pretty as some old miracle of legend - had been
wrought on the spot to save me. There had been a big brush of
wings, the flash of an opaline robe, and then, with a great cool
stir of the air, the sense of an angel's having swooped down and
caught me to his bosom. He held me only till the danger was over,
and it all took place in a minute. With my manuscript back on my
hands I understood the phenomenon better, and the reflexions I made
on it are what I meant, at the beginning of this anecdote, by my
change of heart. Mr. Pinhorn's note was not only a rebuke
decidedly stern, but an invitation immediately to send him - it was
the case to say so - the genuine article, the revealing and
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