| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: the shape of a butterfly; and, when he awoke, the memories and the feelings
of butterfly existence remained so vivid in his mind that he could not act
like a human being... Finally I should like to know the text of a certain
Chinese official recognition of sundry butterflies as the spirits of an
Emperor and of his attendants...
Most of the Japanese literature about butterflies, excepting some poetry,
appears to be of Chinese origin; and even that old national aesthetic
feeling on the subject, which found such delightful expression in Japanese
art and song and custom, may have been first developed under Chinese
teaching. Chinese precedent doubtless explains why Japanese poets and
painters chose so often for their geimyo, or professional appellations,
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: But yet the love was there. And now when this toy kingdom of ours
has fallen, first of all by my demerits, and next by your
inexperience, and we are here alone together, as poor as Job and
merely a man and a woman - let me conjure you to forgive the
weakness and to repose in the love. Do not mistake me!' he cried,
seeing her about to speak, and imposing silence with uplifted hand.
'My love is changed; it is purged of any conjugal pretension; it
does not ask, does not hope, does not wish for a return in kind.
You may forget for ever that part in which you found me so
distasteful, and accept without embarrassment the affection of a
brother.'
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: and here were the brown and comely ruins of their church
and convent to prove that priests had as fine an instinct
seven hundred years ago in ferreting out the choicest
nooks and corners in a land as priests have today.
A big hotel crowds the ruins a little, now, and drives
a brisk trade with summer tourists. We descended
into the gorge and had a supper which would have been
very satisfactory if the trout had not been boiled.
The Germans are pretty sure to boil a trout or anything
else if left to their own devices. This is an argument
of some value in support of the theory that they were
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