| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: fire in the stove. Nataline busied herself with a score of things.
She put away the poor little store of provisions, sent Marcel for a
pail of water, made some tea, spread the table, and sat down
opposite to him. For a time she kept her eyes turned away from him,
while she talked about all sorts of things. Then she fell silent
for a little, still not looking at him. She got up and moved about
the room, arranged two or three packages on the shelves, shut the
damper of the stove, glancing at Marcel's back out of the corners of
her eyes. Then she came back to her chair, pushed her cup aside,
rested both elbows on the table and her chin in her hands, and
looked Marcel square in the face with her clear brown eyes.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: indiscerptible."
"But the Being," said Nekayah, "whom I fear to name, the Being
which made the soul, can destroy it."
"He surely can destroy it," answered Imlac, "since, however
imperishable, it receives from a superior nature its power of
duration. That it will not perish by any inherent cause of decay
or principle of corruption, may be shown by philosophy; but
philosophy can tell no more. That it will not be annihilated by
Him that made it, we must humbly learn from higher authority."
The whole assembly stood awhile silent and collected. "Let us
return," said Rasselas, "from this scene of mortality. How gloomy
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: "Yes. 'No moon, no man.' 'Tis one of the truest sayings
ever spit out. The boy never comes to anything that's
born at new moon. A bad job for thee, Christian, that you
should have showed your nose then of all days in the month."
"I suppose the moon was terrible full when you were born?"
said Christian, with a look of hopeless admiration
at Fairway.
"Well, 'a was not new," Mr. Fairway replied, with a
disinterested gaze.
"I'd sooner go without drink at Lammas-tide than be
a man of no moon," continued Christian, in the same
Return of the Native |
