| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: "And yet that which you did for him ---- "
"I did it because it was my duty to do it. But you know I
hate all ostentation. Let King Charles II., then, who no
longer stands in need of me, leave me to my rest, and in the
shadow; that is all I claim of him."
D'Artagnan sighed.
"What is the matter with you?" said Athos. "One would say
that this happy return of the king to London saddens you, my
friend; you who have done at least as much for his majesty
as I have."
"Have I not," replied D'Artagnan, with his Gascon laugh,
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: Such was Caleb's psychological argument. He was one of those
rare men who are rigid to themselves and indulgent to others.
He had a certain shame about his neighbors' errors, and never spoke
of them willingly; hence he was not likely to divert his mind
from the best mode of hardening timber and other ingenious devices
in order to preconceive those errors. If he had to blame any one,
it was necessary for him to move all the papers within his reach,
or describe various diagrams with his stick, or make calculations
with the odd money in his pocket, before he could begin; and he
would rather do other men's work than find fault with their doing.
I fear he was a bad disciplinarian.
Middlemarch |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Of mortals roams in quest of, shall this day
Appease thy hunger." Such the words I heard
From Virgil's lip; and never greeting heard
So pleasant as the sounds. Within me straight
Desire so grew upon desire to mount,
Thenceforward at each step I felt the wings
Increasing for my flight. When we had run
O'er all the ladder to its topmost round,
As there we stood, on me the Mantuan fix'd
His eyes, and thus he spake: "Both fires, my son,
The temporal and eternal, thou hast seen,
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
