| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: lying dressed on his bed sleeping like a stone. But there was no
denying that the mother was holding me with an awful, tortured
interest. Twice Therese had opened the door, had put her small
head in and drawn it back like a tortoise. But for some time I had
lost the sense of us two being quite alone in the studio. I had
perceived the familiar dummy in its corner but it lay now on the
floor as if Therese had knocked it down angrily with a broom for a
heathen idol. It lay there prostrate, handless, without its head,
pathetic, like the mangled victim of a crime.
"John is fastidious, too," began Mrs. Blunt again. "Of course you
wouldn't suppose anything vulgar in his resistances to a very real
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: The Rhodope, that built the pyramid,
Clelia, Cornelia, with the Palmyrene
That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows
Of Agrippina. Dwell with these, and lose
Convention, since to look on noble forms
Makes noble through the sensuous organism
That which is higher. O lift your natures up:
Embrace our aims: work out your freedom. Girls,
Knowledge is now no more a fountain sealed:
Drink deep, until the habits of the slave,
The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: their being with the virtuous; that of government is in its securing
good order; that of (the conduct of) affairs is in its ability; and
that of (the initiation of) any movement is in its timeliness.
3. And when (one with the highest excellence) does not wrangle (about
his low position), no one finds fault with him.
9. 1. It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to
carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been
sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.
2. When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them
safe. When wealth and honours lead to arrogancy, this brings its evil
on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming
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