| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Drunk men tak' aye mair place than ony;
An' sae, ye see,
The gate was aye ower thrang for Johnie -
Or you an' me.
John micht hae jingled cap an' bells,
Been a braw fule in silks an' pells,
In ane o' the auld worl's canty hells
Paris or Sodom.
I wadnae had him naething else
But Johnie Adam.
He suffered - as have a' that wan
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: judge from his habit, which was that of a planter. His
features were good -- a straight nose, firm mouth, broad
forehead, from which his long, dark hair was combed straight
back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his well
fitting frock coat. He wore a moustache and pointed beard,
but no whiskers; his eyes were large and dark gray, and had a
kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in one
whose neck was in the hemp. Evidently this was no vulgar
assassin. The liberal military code makes provision for
hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not
excluded.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: to her belongs the essence of which the very name implies existence.
Having, as I am convinced, rightly accepted this conclusion, and on
sufficient grounds, I must, as I suppose, cease to argue or allow others to
argue that the soul is a harmony.
Let me put the matter, Simmias, he said, in another point of view: Do you
imagine that a harmony or any other composition can be in a state other
than that of the elements, out of which it is compounded?
Certainly not.
Or do or suffer anything other than they do or suffer?
He agreed.
Then a harmony does not, properly speaking, lead the parts or elements
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