| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: at Rome, and all the pleasures it offered to you when living
there, and all that would attend your return. Rather be intent on
this--how he that lives in Gyaros may live in Gyaros like a man
of spirit. And if you are at Rome, do not let your mind dwell
upon the life at Athens, but study only how to live at Rome.
Finally, in the room of all other pleasures put this--the
pleasure which springs from concious obedience to God.
CXXXIV
To a good man there is no evil, either in life or death. And
if God supply not food, has He not, as a wise Commander, sounded
the signal for retreat and nothing more? I obey, I follow--
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: "Sorry to incommode you," said their visitor ironically.
"I'm afraid your beds are dampish. Perhaps you had better go
to your brother's room; I've left the ceiling on there."
They required no second admonition, but rushed into Gluck's
room, wet through and in an agony of terror.
"You'll find my card on the kitchen table," the old gentleman
called after them. "Remember, the LAST visit."
"Pray Heaven it may!" said Schwartz, shuddering. And the
foam globe disappeared.
Dawn came at last, and the two brothers looked out of Gluck's
little window in the morning. The Treasure Valley was one mass of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: own handiwork. Creation was not finished till the poet came to
interpret, and so complete it.
The effect was no less high and beautiful, when his human
brethren were the subject of his verse. The man or woman, sordid
with the common dust of life, who crossed his daily path, and the
little child who played in it, were glorified if he beheld them
in his mood of poetic faith. He showed the golden links of the
great chain that intertwined them with an angelic kindred; he
brought out the hidden traits of a celestial birth that made them
worthy of such kin. Some, indeed, there were, who thought to show
the soundness of their judgment by affirming that all the beauty
The Snow Image |
