| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: and pass among my friends for a whiskery fire-eater, afraid of
neither man nor dragon. Ah me! Suppose some brisk little chap
steps up and gives me a caning in St. James's Street, with all the
heads of my friends looking out of all the club windows. My
reputation is gone. I frighten no man more. My nose is pulled by
whipper-snappers, who jump up on a chair to reach it. I am found
out. And in the days of my triumphs, when people were yet afraid
of me, and were taken in by my swagger, I always knew that I was a
lily liver, and expected that I should be found out some day.
That certainty of being found out must haunt and depress many a
bold braggadocio spirit. Let us say it is a clergyman, who can
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: There is no creature loves me
And if I die no soul will pity me,
adds, with a grin,
Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity for myself?
Let me again remind Mr Harris of Oscar Wilde. We all dreaded to read
De Profundis: our instinct was to stop our ears, or run away from the
wail of a broken, though by no means contrite, heart. But we were
throwing away our pity. De Profundis was de profundis indeed: Wilde
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: 219 Dr. Nikidik's Famous Wishing Pills
The Tin Woodman was usually a peaceful man, but when occasion required he
could fight as fiercely as a Roman gladiator. So, when the Jackdaws nearly
knocked him down in their rush of wings, and their sharp beaks and claws
threatened to damage his brilliant plating, the Woodman picked up his axe
and made it whirl swiftly around his head.
But although many were beaten off in this way, the birds were so numerous
and so brave that they continued the attack as furiously as before. Some of
them pecked at the eyes of the Gump, which hung over the nest in a helpless
condition; but the Gump's eyes were of glass and could not be injured.
Others of the Jackdaws rushed at the Saw-Horse; but that animal, being still
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
