| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: Theoretically a lofty love is conceivable; practically it is an
ignoble and degrading thing, which it is equally disgusting to
talk about and to remember. It is not in vain that nature has
made ceremonies, but people pretend that the ignoble and the
shameful is beautiful and lofty.
"I will tell you brutally and briefly what were the first signs
of my love. I abandoned myself to beastly excesses, not only not
ashamed of them, but proud of them, giving no thought to the
intellectual life of my wife. And not only did I not think of
her intellectual life, I did not even consider her physical life.
I was astonished at the origin of our hostility, and yet how
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: "My darling child," said the dying man, "my hours, my minutes even,
are counted. I have not been a doctor for nothing; I shall not last
till evening. Do not cry, my Ursula," he said, fearing to be
interrupted by the child's weeping, "but listen to me carefully; it
concerns your marriage to Savinien. As soon as La Bougival comes back
go down to the pagoda,--here is the key,--lift the marble top of the
Boule buffet and you will find a letter beneath it, sealed and
addressed to you; take it and come back here, for I cannot die easy
unless I see it in your hands. When I am dead do not let any one know
of it immediately, but send for Monsieur de Portenduere; read the
letter together; swear to me now, in his name and your own, that you
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: IX.
Fair was the morn when the fair queen of love,
* * * * * *
Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove,
For Adon's sake, a youngster proud and wild;
Her stand she takes upon a steep-up hill:
Anon Adonis comes with horn and hounds;
She, silly queen, with more than love's good will,
Forbade the boy he should not pass those grounds:
'Once,' quoth she, 'did I see a fair sweet youth
Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar,
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