| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: "When Heracles was emerging from boyhood into the bloom of youth,
having reached that season in which the young man, now standing upon
the verge of independence, shows plainly whether he will enter upon
the path of virtue or of vice, he went forth into a quiet place, and
sat debating with himself which of those two paths he should pursue;
and as he there sat musing, there appeared to him two women of great
stature which drew nigh to him. The one was fair to look upon, frank
and free by gift of nature,[30] her limbs adorned with purity and her
eyes with bashfulness; sobriety set the rhythm of her gait, and she
was clad in white apparel. The other was of a different type; the
fleshy softness of her limbs betrayed her nurture, while the
The Memorabilia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: canopy on Corpus Christi day, it would be a thing to laugh at;
but at this hour, alone, with no one to see--it is surely a thing
to marvel at!"
Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head
surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein
asked him to dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at
a restaurant. At dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of
the mass, speaking of it as mummery and a farce.
"A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood
than all Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass
is a papal invention, not older than the sixth century, and
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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: huddle together and make a common rampart of their backs.
The assembly into a ball-shaped mass is also the rule in calm,
bright weather, after the morning's exertions. In the afternoon,
the climbers collect at a higher point, where they weave a wide,
conical tent, with the end of a shoot for its top, and, gathered
into a compact group, spend the night there. Next day, when the
heat returns, the ascent is resumed in long files, following the
shrouds which a few pioneers have rigged and which those who come
after elaborate with their own work.
Collected nightly into a globular troop and sheltered under a fresh
tent, for three or four days, each morning, before the sun grows
The Life of the Spider |
