| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: out of the dark backward and abysm of time the images of perished
things. But it was a part that scarce became him; he somehow
lacked the means: for all his silver hair and worn face, he was not
truly old; and he had too much of the unrest and petulant fire of
youth, and too much invincible innocence of mind, to play the
veteran well. The time to measure him best, to taste (in the old
phrase) his gracious nature, was when he received his class at
home. What a pretty simplicity would he then show, trying to amuse
us like children with toys; and what an engaging nervousness of
manner, as fearing that his efforts might not succeed! Truly he
made us all feel like children, and like children embarrassed, but
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: the way will open before me. But if it is not your pleasure,
then the way is so obstructed that I could not possibly pass
through." "Certainly," she says, "I consent. My will need not
stand in your way; but you must wait until I retire to my bed
again, so that no harm may come to you, for it would be no joke
or jest if the seneschal, who is sleeping here, should wake up on
hearing you. So it is best for me to withdraw, for no good could
come of it, if he should see me standing here." "Go then, lady,"
he replies; "but have no fear that I shall make any noise. I
think I can draw out the bars so softly and with so little effort
that no one shall be aroused."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Borne homeward tempt the Pontic, and the jaws
Of oyster-rife Abydos. When the Scales
Now poising fair the hours of sleep and day
Give half the world to sunshine, half to shade,
Then urge your bulls, my masters; sow the plain
Even to the verge of tameless winter's showers
With barley: then, too, time it is to hide
Your flax in earth, and poppy, Ceres' joy,
Aye, more than time to bend above the plough,
While earth, yet dry, forbids not, and the clouds
Are buoyant. With the spring comes bean-sowing;
Georgics |
