| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: The obligation of attendance, the formality, the restraint,
the length of time--altogether it is a formidable thing,
and what nobody likes; and if the good people who used
to kneel and gape in that gallery could have foreseen
that the time would ever come when men and women might lie
another ten minutes in bed, when they woke with a headache,
without danger of reprobation, because chapel was missed,
they would have jumped with joy and envy. Cannot you
imagine with what unwilling feelings the former belles
of the house of Rushworth did many a time repair to
this chapel? The young Mrs. Eleanors and Mrs. Bridgets--
Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: begad! I'll go down fighting with you."
"I think we are likely to have interesting times, my dear
dictator. Be sure I shall watch your doings with interest so long
as your friends allow me to watch anything in this present
world." The governor turned to his desk and continued the letter
with a firm hand. "I think this should relieve you of
responsibility, colonel."
By this time General Carlo had reentered the room, with a
crestfallen face.
O'Halloran had been thinking rapidly. "Governor, I think the
safest place for you and General Carlo, for a day or two, will be
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: himself; as a shepherd straying through a valley with his sheep in
search of green meadow or cool stream; as a singer trying to build
out of the music the walls of the City of God; or as a lover for
whose love the whole world was too small. His miracles seem to me
to be as exquisite as the coming of spring, and quite as natural.
I see no difficulty at all in believing that such was the charm of
his personality that his mere presence could bring peace to souls
in anguish, and that those who touched his garments or his hands
forgot their pain; or that as he passed by on the highway of life
people who had seen nothing of life's mystery, saw it clearly, and
others who had been deaf to every voice but that of pleasure heard
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