| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?
TO TIRZAH
Whate'er is born of mortal birth
Must be consumed with the earth,
To rise from generation free:
Then what have I to do with thee?
The sexes sprung from shame and pride,
Blowed in the morn, in evening died;
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: --Madame Firmiani gratified all the vanities which feed or excite
love. She was therefore sought by too many men not to fall a victim to
Parisian malice and its charming calumnies, whispered behind a fan or
in a safe aside. It was necessary to quote the remarks given at the
beginning of this history to bring out the true Firmiani in
contradistinction to the Firmiani of society. If some women forgave
her happiness, others did not forgive her propriety. Now nothing is so
dangerous in Paris as unfounded suspicions,--for the reason that it is
impossible to destroy them.
This sketch of a woman who was admirably natural gives only a faint
idea of her. It would need the pencil of an Ingres to render the pride
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: the public all the little I might myself have found, and incite men of
superior genius to strive to proceed farther, by contributing, each
according to his inclination and ability, to the experiments which it
would be necessary to make, and also by informing the public of all they
might discover, so that, by the last beginning where those before them had
left off, and thus connecting the lives and labours of many, we might
collectively proceed much farther than each by himself could do.
I remarked, moreover, with respect to experiments, that they become always
more necessary the more one is advanced in knowledge; for, at the
commencement, it is better to make use only of what is spontaneously
presented to our senses, and of which we cannot remain ignorant, provided
Reason Discourse |
