| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: conversation, in politics, in literature, in the imaginings of the
scholar, in the efforts of the statesman, in the conceptions of the
inventor, or the soldier's toils of war; the fire within is apt to
flash out in gleams of marvelously vivid light, like the sparks hidden
in an unpolished diamond. Let the occasion come, and the spirit within
kindles and glows, finds wings to traverse space, and the god-like
power of beholding all things. The coal of yesterday under the play of
some mysterious influence becomes a radiant diamond. Better educated
people, many-sided and highly polished, continually giving out all
that is in them, can never exhibit this supreme power, save by one of
the miracles which God sometimes vouchsafes to work. For this reason
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: the better to provoke his stomach to a
disgorgement, if the first rouse will not
serve turn. He will now (for on every
disgorge he will bring you forth a new
colour), he will now present you with white
wine. Here also he will not wash his
glass, which (according to the vinegar in
which it was washed) will give it a colour
like it. You are to understand, that when
he gives you the colour of so many wines,
he never washes the glass, but at his first
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: be my worshipful knightly master. You have given me my lesson
and my license; I will execute the one, and not abuse the other.
I will be in the saddle by daybreak."
"Do so, and deserve favour. Stay--ere thou goest fill me a cup
of wine--not out of that flask, sirrah," as Lambourne was pouring
out from that which Alasco had left half finished, "fetch me a
fresh one."
Lambourne obeyed, and Varney, after rinsing his mouth with the
liquor, drank a full cup, and said, as he took up a lamp to
retreat to his sleeping apartment, "It is strange--I am as little
the slave of fancy as any one, yet I never speak for a few
Kenilworth |
