| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: And how you prayed him to participate
Of the last conquest of this noble fort.
In hardy Sweno opened was the gate
Of worthy anger by this brave report,
So that each hour seemed five years long,
Till he were fighting with these Pagans strong.
XI
"And while the herald told your fights and frays,
Himself of cowardice reproved he thought,
And him to stay that counsels him, or prays,
He hears not, or, else heard, regardeth naught,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: and even despise its censure, when convinced of the rectitude of
my own intentions.
"Endeavouring to prove to me that nothing which deserved the
name of love or friendship, existed in the world, he drew such
animated pictures of his own feelings, rendered permanent by
disappointment, as imprinted the sentiments strongly on my heart,
and animated my imagination. These remarks are necessary to
elucidate some peculiarities in my character, which by the world
are indefinitely termed romantic.
"My uncle's increasing affection led him to visit me often.
Still, unable to rest in any place, he did not remain long in the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: marrying the whole family, a prejudice not without parallel
elsewhere. Certainly the opportunity is not appreciated. Indeed,
to "go out as a son-in-law," as the Japanese idiom hath it, is
considered demeaning to the matrimonial domestic. Like other
household help he wears too patently the badge of servitude.
"If you have three koku of rice to your name, don't do it," is the
advice of the local proverb--a proverb whose warning against
marrying for money is the more suggestive for being launched in a
land where marrying for love is beyond the pale of respectability.
To barter one's name in this mercenary manner is looked upon as
derogatory to one's self-respect, although, as we have seen, to part
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