| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: if thou be guided by my counsels. Thou hast seen me do matters
more difficult--he that can call the dying from the darkness of
the shadow of death can easily cast a mist before the eyes of the
living. But mark me: there is still the condition annexed to
this service--that thou deliver a letter of Saladin to the niece
of the Melech Ric, whose name is as difficult to our Eastern
tongue and lips, as her beauty is delightful to our eyes."
Sir Kenneth paused before he answered, and the Saracen observing
his hesitation, demanded of him, "if he feared to undertake this
message?"
"Not if there were death in the execution," said Sir Kenneth. "I
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: eleison of his sweet sins, "thou art the accomplice of a great felony,
and thou has betrayed thy lord. Dost thou know page of darkness, that
for this thou wilt burn through all eternity? and dost thou know what
it is to lose forever the heaven above for a perishable and changeful
moment here below? Unhappy wretch! I see thee precipitated for ever in
the gulfs of hell unless thou payest to God in this world that which
thou owest him for such offence."
Thereupon the good old abbot, who was of that flesh of which saints
are made, and who had great authority in the country of Touraine,
terrified the young man by a heap of representations, Christian
discourses, remembrances of the commandments of the Church, and a
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: was at the table, and, when he saw or heard me, he started,
jumped to his feet, and retreated to the sideboard. Fear was the
only sentiment that could be read with certainty in his face. In
hers, too, fear was to be read, but accompanied by other
impressions. And yet, if her face had expressed only fear,
perhaps that which happened would not have happened. But in the
expression of her face there was at the first moment--at least, I
thought I saw it--a feeling of ennui, of discontent, at this
disturbance of her love and happiness. One would have said that
her sole desire was not to be disturbed IN THE MOMENT OF HER
HAPPINESS. But these expressions appeared upon their faces only
The Kreutzer Sonata |
