| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: That which is meddling, touching everything,
Will work but ill, and disappointment bring.
Misery!--happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness!--misery
lurks beneath it! Who knows what either will come to in the end?
2. Shall we then dispense with correction? The (method of) correction
shall by a turn become distortion, and the good in it shall by a turn
become evil. The delusion of the people (on this point) has indeed
subsisted for a long time.
3. Therefore the sage is (like) a square which cuts no one (with its
angles); (like) a corner which injures no one (with its sharpness).
He is straightforward, but allows himself no license; he is bright,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: blessing when his hands pressed her silky black hair.
As she entered the parlour, a strange chill swept over the girl.
The room was not an unaccustomed one, for she had swept it many
times, but to-day the stiff black chairs, the dismal crucifixes,
the gleaming whiteness of the walls, even the cheap lithograph of
the Madonna which Camille had always regarded as a perfect
specimen of art, seemed cold and mean.
"Camille, ma chere," said Mother, "I am extremely displeased with
you. Why did you not wish to go with Monsieur and Madame Lafaye
yesterday?"
The girl uncrossed her hands from her bosom, and spread them out
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: eagerness, I felt that he was right.
The horses were unharnessed, and left to browse under the care of the
coachman who had driven us. The provisions were unpacked, and John
Hart and Nab Walker spread out a meal on the grass at the foot of a
superb cypress which recalled to me the forest odors of Morganton and
Pleasant Garden. We were hungry and thirsty; and food and drink were
not lacking. Then our pipes were lighted to calm the anxious moments
of waiting that remained.
Silence reigned within the wood. The last son of the birds had
ceased. With the coming of night the breeze fell little by little,
and the leaves scarcely quivered even at the tops of the highest
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