| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: inclines me to suppose him innocent. His daughter is defaced by
his erroneous cruelty, for it was his wife he had intended to
disfigure, and in the darkness of the night and the frenzy of coco-
brandy, fastened on the wrong victim. The wife has since fled and
harbours in the bush with natives; and the husband still demands
from deaf ears her forcible restoration. The best of his business
is to make natives drink, and then advance the money for the fine
upon a lucrative mortgage. 'Respect for whites' is the man's word:
'What is the matter with this island is the want of respect for
whites.' On his way to Butaritari, while I was there, he spied his
wife in the bush with certain natives and made a dash to capture
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: oldest of the traditions common to the whole Indo-European
race, appears in Italy as a purely local legend, and is
narrated as such by Virgil, in the eighth book of the AEneid;
by Livy, at the beginning of his history; and by Propertius
and Ovid. Hercules, journeying through Italy after his victory
over Geryon, stops to rest by the bank of the Tiber. While he
is taking his repose, the three-headed monster Cacus, a son of
Vulcan and a formidable brigand, comes and steals his cattle,
and drags them tail-foremost to a secret cavern in the rocks.
But the lowing of the cows arouses Hercules, and he runs
toward the cavern where the robber, already frightened, has
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: There's plenty of suffering here, but it don't last. You see,
happiness ain't a THING IN ITSELF - it's only a CONTRAST with
something that ain't pleasant. That's all it is. There ain't a
thing you can mention that is happiness in its own self - it's only
so by contrast with the other thing. And so, as soon as the
novelty is over and the force of the contrast dulled, it ain't
happiness any longer, and you have to get something fresh. Well,
there's plenty of pain and suffering in heaven - consequently
there's plenty of contrasts, and just no end of happiness."
Says I, "It's the sensiblest heaven I've heard of yet, Sam, though
it's about as different from the one I was brought up on as a live
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