| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming
distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven.
10. 1. When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one
embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided
attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of
pliancy, he can become as a (tender) babe. When he has cleansed away
the most mysterious sights (of his imagination), he can become without
a flaw.
2. In loving the people and ruling the state, cannot he proceed
without any (purpose of) action? In the opening and shutting of his
gates of heaven, cannot he do so as a female bird? While his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: blind devotion: she would have stolen the fruit to make their
sweetmeats. Instead of taking her money to the savings-bank, she put
it judiciously into lotteries, hoping that some day she could bestow a
good round sum on her master and mistress. On the appointed Sundays
when they received their guests, she was, despite her years, active in
the kitchen to superintend the dishes, which she served at the table
with an agility that (to use a favorite expression of the worthy
Ragon) might have given points to Mademoiselle Contat when she played
Susanne in the "Mariage de Figaro."
The guests on this occasion were Popinot the judge, Pillerault,
Anselme, the three Birotteaus, three Matifats, and the Abbe Loraux.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: them they were captives and slaves, but with him freemen and
citizens of Rome. But he was forced to hide and help them to
escape privately, perceiving that his friends and officers were
bent upon revenge against them. Among the captives there was
one Volumnius, a player, and Sacculio, a buffoon; of these
Brutus took no manner of notice, but his friends brought them
before him, and accused them that even then in that condition
they did not refrain from their jests and scurrilous language.
Brutus, having his mind taken up with other affairs, said
nothing to their accusation; but the judgment of Messala
Corvinus was, that they should be whipped publicly upon a stage,
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