| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: form of poisoning with the fruit of the eva, which offers to the
native suicide a cruel but deliberate death, and gives time for
those decencies of the last hour, to which he attaches such
remarkable importance. The coffin can thus be at hand, the pigs
killed, the cry of the mourners sounding already through the house;
and then it is, and not before, that the Marquesan is conscious of
achievement, his life all rounded in, his robes (like Caesar's)
adjusted for the final act. Praise not any man till he is dead,
said the ancients; envy not any man till you hear the mourners,
might be the Marquesan parody. The coffin, though of late
introduction, strangely engages their attention. It is to the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: Souvenez-vous, j'ai glisse dans le sang quand je suis entre ici.
Aussi j'ai entendu un battement d'ailes dans l'air, un battement
d'ailes gigantesques. Ce sont de tres mauvais presages. Et il y en
avait d'autres. Je suis sur qu'il y en avait d'autres, quoique je
ne les aie pas vus. Eh bien! Salome, vous ne voulez pas qu'un
malheur m'arrive? Vous ne voulez pas cela. Enfin, ecoutez-moi.
SALOME. Donnez-moi la tete d'Iokanaan.
HERODE. Vous voyez, vous ne m'ecoutez pas. Mais soyez calme. Moi,
je suis tres calme. Je suis tout e fait calme. Ecoutez. J'ai des
bijoux caches ici que meme votre mere n'a jamais vus, des bijoux
tout e fait extraordinaires. J'ai un collier de perles e quatre
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