| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'MAOTA,' roared the highest chief present - 'palace.' About
eighteen chiefs, gorgeously arrayed, stood up to greet us,
and led us into one of these MAOTAS, where you may be sure we
had to crouch, almost to kneel, to enter, and where a row of
pretty girls occupied one side to make the ava (kava). The
highest chief present was a magnificent man, as high chiefs
usually are; I find I cannot describe him; his face is full
of shrewdness and authority; his figure like Ajax; his name
Auilua. He took the head of the building and put Belle on
his right hand. Fanny was called first for the ava (kava).
Our names were called in English style, the high-chief wife
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: which the education of youth afforded them, to so abominable a
purpose.
v. 111. Francesco.] Son of Accorso, a Florentine, celebrated
for his skill in jurisprudence, and commonly known by the name of
Accursius.
v. 113. Him.] Andrea de' Mozzi, who, that his scandalous life
might be less exposed to observation, was translated either by
Nicholas III, or Boniface VIII from the see of Florence to that
of Vicenza, through which passes the river Baccchiglione. At the
latter of these places he died.
v. 114. The servants' servant.] Servo de' servi. So Ariosto,
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: blew out the lights, knelt down, and prayed to our
Heavenly Father mercifully to assist us, as he did
his people of old, to escape from cruel bondage; and
we shall ever feel that God heard and answered our
prayer. Had we not been sustained by a kind, and
I sometimes think special, providence, we could
never have overcome the mountainous difficulties
which I am now about to describe.
After this we rose and stood for a few moments
in breathless silence,--we were afraid that some one
might have been about the cottage listening and
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
