| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: except that his brown eyes were as soft as a spaniel's, and his
rounded black beard, beginning close up under them, reminded
Una of the walrus in 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.'
'Don't he justabout know?' he said shyly, and shifted from one
foot to the other.
'Yes. "What Cattiwow can't get out of the woods must have
roots growing to her."' Dan had heard old Hobden say this a
few days before.
At that minute Puck pranced up, picking his way through the
pools of black water in the ling.
'Look out!' cried Una, jumping forward. 'He'll see you, Puck!'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: not help seeing what I did. I cannot say that I knew in advance
what I would do, but at the moment when I acted, and it seems to
me even a little before, I knew what I was doing, as if to make
it possible to repent, and to be able to say later that I could
have stopped.
"I knew that I struck the blow between the ribs, and that the
dagger entered.
"At the second when I did it, I knew that I was performing a
horrible act, such as I had never performed,--an act that would
have frightful consequences. My thought was as quick as
lightning, and the deed followed immediately. The act, to my
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: betook himself to the cave of that same holy man, to whom Nachor
also had resorted, and told him that which had befallen him,
casting dust upon his head, and groaning deeply, and watering
himself with his tears, and telling the aged man the full tale of
his loathly deeds. He, well skilled in the saving of a soul and
the snatching it from the jaw of the wily serpent, charmed away
his sorrow with words of salvation, and pledged him forgiveness
and promised him a merciful Judge. Then, after he had instructed
and charged him to fast many days, he cleansed him in Holy
Baptism. And all the days of his life Theudas heartily repented
him of his misdeeds, with tears and sighs seeking the favour of
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