| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: evidently laughing at me.
Happily for my patience and my curiosity, which, under the pressure of
all this opposition was growing terrible, a certain amount of light
was given me. A few days after my last discomfiture, a letter reached
me bearing the post-mark Stockholm, Sweden; which address did not
surprise me because, while in Rome, I had been honored by the
friendship of Thorwaldsen, the great Swedish sculptor, and I had often
met in his studio many of his compatriots. Probably, therefore, this
letter conveyed an order from one of them, sent through Thorwaldsen.
But, on opening the letter what was my amazement, and my emotion, in
presence of its opening words:--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: CANTO XIX
v. 1. The hour.] Near the dawn.
v. 4. The geomancer.] The geomancers, says Landino, when they
divined, drew a figure consisting of sixteen marks, named from so
many stars which constitute the end of Aquarius and the beginning
of Pisces. One of these they called "the greater fortune."
v. 7. A woman's shape.] Worldly happiness. This allegory
reminds us of the "Choice of Hercules."
v. 14. Love's own hue.]
A smile that glow'd
Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue.
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: Next the Wizard poured a pool of oil from the can upon the glass floor,
where it covered quite a broad surface. When he lighted the oil a hundred
tongues of flame shot up, and the effect was really imposing.
"Now, Princess," exclaimed the Wizard, "those of your advisors who
wished to throw us into the Garden of Clinging Vines must step within
this circle of light. If they advised you well, and were in the
right, they will not be injured in any way. But if any advised you
wrongly, the light will wither him."
The advisors of the Princess did not like this test; but she commanded
them to step into the flame and one by one they did so, and were
scorched so badly that the air was soon filled with an odor like that
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
