| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: mice set off for the town and arrived at the Town Mouse's
residence late at night. "You will want some refreshment after
our long journey," said the polite Town Mouse, and took his friend
into the grand dining-room. There they found the remains of a
fine feast, and soon the two mice were eating up jellies and cakes
and all that was nice. Suddenly they heard growling and barking.
"What is that?" said the Country Mouse. "It is only the dogs of
the house," answered the other. "Only!" said the Country Mouse.
"I do not like that music at my dinner." Just at that moment the
door flew open, in came two huge mastiffs, and the two mice had to
scamper down and run off. "Good-bye, Cousin," said the Country
Aesop's Fables |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: the passage from which opened George and Lucy's private apartment;
and as it was consequently disagreeable to have a stranger there,
it was always used when the house was full for a member of the
family. My father and mother had often slept there: there was a
little room next to it, though not communicating with it, which
served for a dressing-room. Though I had never passed the night
there myself, I knew it as well as any room in the house. I went
there at once, and found Lucy superintending the last arrangements
for my comfort.
She was full of apologies for the trouble she was giving me. I
told her that the apologies were due to my maid and to her own
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: possesses, and that it is somehow or other more respectable and
pious to be always at work making a larger living, than it is to
lie on your back in the green pastures and beside the still waters,
and thank God that you are alive.
Come, then, my gentle reader, (for by this time you have discovered
that this chapter is only a preface in disguise,--a declaration of
principles or the want of them, an apology or a defence, as you
choose to take it,) and if we are agreed, let us walk together; but
if not, let us part here with out ill-will.
You shall not be deceived in this book. It is nothing but a
handful of rustic variations on the old tune of "Rest and be
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