The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: just as he could read at the bottom of a man's conscience the faintest
outlines of a crime, the slenderest threads of wrongdoing, and infer
all the rest.
Popinot's inherited fortune was a thousand crowns a year. His wife,
sister to M. Bianchon SENIOR, a doctor at Sancerre, had brought him
about twice as much. She, dying five years since, had left her fortune
to her husband. As the salary of a supernumerary judge is not large,
and Popinot had been a fully salaried judge only for four years, we
may guess his reasons for parsimony in all that concerned his person
and mode of life, when we consider how small his means were and how
great his beneficence. Besides, is not such indifference to dress as
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: himself for another's need? How can that prayer be of help, good,
acceptable and a common prayer, or a work of the Holy Day and of
the assembled congregation, which they make who make their own
petty prayers, one for this, the other for that, and have nothing
but self-seeking, selfish prayers, which God hates?
XII. A suggestion of this common prayer has been retained from
ancient practice, when at the end of the sermon the Confession
of Sins is said and prayer is made on the pulpit for all
Christendom. But this should not be the end of the matter, as is
now the custom and fashion; it should be an exhortation to pray
throughout the entire mass for such need as the preacher makes
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: ought to be happy; but this was not the case. The
Metal Monarch was surly and cross because
mortals had dug so much treasure out of the
earth and kept it above ground, where all the
power of Ruggedo and his nomes was unable to
recover it. He hated not only the mortals but
also the fairies who live upon the earth or above
it, and instead of being content with the riches
he still possessed he was unhappy because he did
not own all the gold and jewels in the world.
Ruggedo had been nodding, half asleep, in
Tik-Tok of Oz |