| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: had their day or their night, and danced until the robust Hope
went home exhausted and left her more fragile cousins to dance
on till morning. Indeed, it was no easy thing for them to tear
themselves away; Kate was always in demand; Philip knew
everybody, and had that latest aroma of Paris which the soul of
fashion covets; Harry had the tried endurance which befits
brothers and lovers at balls; while Emilia's foreign court held
out till morning, and one handsome young midshipman, in
special, kept revolving back to her after each long orbit of
separation, like a gold-laced comet.
The young people lingered extravagantly late at that ball, for
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor,
vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the
wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the
thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces
freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some
life pasturing freely where we never wander. We are cheered when we
observe the vulture feeding on the carrion which disgusts and
disheartens us, and deriving health and strength from the repast.
There was a dead horse in the hollow by the path to my house, which
compelled me sometimes to go out of my way, especially in the night
when the air was heavy, but the assurance it gave me of the strong
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: with fixed, moist eyes in which there was no expression, to the
revelations of his friend, who ended by saying: "I know the wrong I do
in abandoning your cause; but, my dear abbe, family duties must be
considered before those of friendship. Yield, as I do, to this storm,
and I will prove to you my gratitude. I am not talking of your worldly
interests, for those I take charge of. You shall be made free of all
such anxieties for the rest of your life. By means of Monsieur de
Bourbonne, who will know how to save appearances, I shall arrange
matters so that you shall lack nothing. My friend, grant me the right
to abandon you. I shall ever be your friend, though forced to conform
to the axioms of the world. You must decide."
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