| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: did not quiver the least bit. Pressing his lips into straight
lines and nodding his head slowly, he bent over the wolf. He held
his ear close to the coyote's nose, but not a breath of air stirred
from it.
"Dead!" said he at last. "Dead, but not long since he ran
over these plains! See! there in his paw is caught a fresh
feather. He is nice fat meat!" Taking hold of the paw with the
bird feather fast on it, he exclaimed, "Why, he is still warm!
I'll carry him to my dwelling and have a roast for my evening meal.
Ah-ha!" he laughed, as he seized the coyote by its two fore paws
and its two hind feet and swung him over head across his shoulders.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: dies. Suppose that the remainder of life is to be one constant
struggle with the gout which racks our bones, or with a gnawing and
disfiguring cancer, the wise man dismisses quacks, and at the proper
moment bids a last farewell to the friends whom he only saddens by his
presence. Or another perhaps has fallen alive into the hands of the
tyrant against whom he fought. What shall he do? The oath of
allegiance is tendered to him; he must either subscribe or stretch out
his neck to the executioner; the fool takes the latter course, the
coward subscribes, the wise man strikes a last blow for liberty--in
his own heart. 'You who are free,' the Stoic was wont to say, 'know
then how to preserve your freedom! Find freedom from your own passions
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: is temporarily or permanently weakened, the voluntary muscles fail
before the involuntary. It is a fact familiar to pathologists,
as Sir C. Bell remarks,[20] "that when debility arises from affection
of the brain, the influence is greatest on those muscles which are,
in their natural condition, most under the command of the will."
We shall, also, in our future chapters, consider another proposition
included in our first Principle; namely, that the checking of one habitual
movement sometimes requires other slight movements; these latter serving
as a means of expression.
[19] See the account given by this excellent observer in `Wild Sports
of the Highlands,' 1846, p. 142.
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
