| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: Yes; the great emperor was a perfect man. But how intolerable were
the endless claims upon him! He staggered under the burden of the
empire. He was conscious how inadequate one man was to bear the
weight of that Titan and too vast orb. What I mean by a perfect
man is one who develops under perfect conditions; one who is not
wounded, or worried or maimed, or in danger. Most personalities
have been obliged to be rebels. Half their strength has been
wasted in friction. Byron's personality, for instance, was
terribly wasted in its battle with the stupidity, and hypocrisy,
and Philistinism of the English. Such battles do not always
intensify strength: they often exaggerate weakness. Byron was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: between husband and wife!
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With a gesture of despair.] Lady Windermere, Lady
Windermere, don't say such terrible things. You don't know how
terrible they are, how terrible and how unjust. Listen, you must
listen! Only go back to your husband, and I promise you never to
communicate with him again on any pretext - never to see him -
never to have anything to do with his life or yours. The money
that he gave me, he gave me not through love, but through hatred,
not in worship, but in contempt. The hold I have over him -
LADY WINDERMERE. [Rising.] Ah! you admit you have a hold!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes, and I will tell you what it is. It is his love
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: their children and then themselves at the approach of the Apache.
The name Apache curdled the blood of any woman of the Southwest
in those days.
Madeline shuddered, and was glad when the old frontiersman
changed the subject and began to talk of the settling of that
country by the Spaniards, the legends of lost gold-mines handed
down to the Mexicans, and strange stories of heroism and mystery
and religion. The Mexicans had not advanced much in spite of the
spread of civilization to the Southwest. They were still
superstitious, and believed the legends of treasures hidden in
the walls of their missions, and that unseen hands rolled rocks
The Light of Western Stars |
