| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: Mistress. When in the Convent, my progress had always exceeded my
instructions, my Acquirements had been wonderfull for my age, and
I had shortly surpassed my Masters.
In my Mind, every Virtue that could adorn it was centered; it was
the Rendez-vous of every good Quality and of every noble
sentiment.
A sensibility too tremblingly alive to every affliction of my
Freinds, my Acquaintance and particularly to every affliction of
my own, was my only fault, if a fault it could be called. Alas!
how altered now! Tho' indeed my own Misfortunes do not make less
impression on me than they ever did, yet now I never feel for
Love and Friendship |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: Again, hunger and thirst are inanitions of the body, ignorance and folly of
the soul; and food is the satisfaction of the one, knowledge of the other.
Now which is the purer satisfaction--that of eating and drinking, or that
of knowledge? Consider the matter thus: The satisfaction of that which
has more existence is truer than of that which has less. The invariable
and immortal has a more real existence than the variable and mortal, and
has a corresponding measure of knowledge and truth. The soul, again, has
more existence and truth and knowledge than the body, and is therefore more
really satisfied and has a more natural pleasure. Those who feast only on
earthly food, are always going at random up to the middle and down again;
but they never pass into the true upper world, or have a taste of true
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: fantastic name of "crystallization" to the process which Madame de
Listomere's thoughts went through before, during, and after this
evening.
Four days later Eugene was scolding his valet.
"Ah ca! Joseph; I shall soon have to send you away, my lad."
"What is it, monsieur?"
"You do nothing but make mistakes. Where did you carry those letters I
gave you Saturday?"
Joseph became stolid. Like a statue in some cathedral porch, he stood
motionless, entirely absorbed in the labors of imagination. Suddenly
he smiled idiotically, and said:--
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