| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: scarce a wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with
misfortunes and abasement, became something impatient of hearing
his misery made, at every turn, the ground of proverbs and
apothegms, however just and apposite.
"Methinks," he said, rather peevishly, "I wanted no additional
illustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank
thee, Sir Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade
but stumble so effectually as at once to break my neck and her
own."
"My brother," answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity,
"thou speakest as one of the foolish. Thou sayest in thy heart
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,
No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.
As for the child, it was but three days old,
When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned
Together, gave it to be cast away
By others on the trackless mountain side.
So then Apollo brought it not to pass
The child should be his father's murderer,
Or the dread terror find accomplishment,
And Laius be slain by his own son.
Such was the prophet's horoscope. O king,
Oedipus Trilogy |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Of upward promise, that love's murmur, blent
With sorrow's warning, gave but a supreme
Unending impulse to that human stream
Whose flood was all for the flame's fury bent.
Alas! I said, -- the world is in the wrong.
But the same quenchless fever of unrest
That thrilled the foremost of that martyred throng
Thrilled me, and I awoke . . . and was the same
Bewildered insect plunging for the flame
That burns, and must burn somehow for the best.
The Tavern
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