| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: over a precipice, and the doctor heard the beating of her heart, which
made him shudder.
"Leave us, my child," he said to the girl, who went to the pagoda and
sat upon the steps, after allowing Savinien to take her hand and kiss
it respectfully.
"Monsieur, will you give this dear hand to a naval captain?" he said
to the doctor in a low voice.
"No," said Minoret, smiling; "we might have to wait too long, but--I
will give her to a lieutenant."
Tears of joy filled the young man's eyes as he pressed the doctor's
hand affectionately.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: alluded to, and partly on account of the light which the festival
generally, whether Christian or Pagan, throws on the
origins of Religious Magic--a subject I shall have to deal
with in the next chapter.
[1] See Robertson's Christianity and Mythology, Part II, pp.
129-302; also Doane's Bible Myths, ch. xxviii, p. 278.
I have already (Ch. II) mentioned the Eucharistic
rite held in commemoration of Mithra, and the indignant
ascription of this by Justin Martyr to the wiles of the Devil.
Justin Martyr clearly had no doubt about the resemblance
of the Mithraic to the Christian ceremony. A Sacramental
 Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: vaulted ceiling. The maid had just placed a tray on a slim
marquetry table near the bed, and over the edge of the tray Susy
discovered the small serious face of Clarissa Vanderlyn. At the
sight of the little girl all her dormant qualms awoke.
Clarissa was just eight, and small for her age: her little
round chin was barely on a level with the tea-service, and her
clear brown eyes gazed at Susy between the ribs of the toast-
rack and the single tea-rose in an old Murano glass. Susy had
not seen her for two years, and she seemed, in the interval, to
have passed from a thoughtful infancy to complete ripeness of
feminine experience. She was looking with approval at her
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