| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: people do not fail to specify them on a votive tablet, when prayers
have been punctually and neatly answered. Whenever time is a
consideration, Saint Joseph is the proper intermediary. I took a
sort of pleasure in observing the vogue he had in France, for the
good man plays a very small part in my religion at home. Yet I
could not help fearing that, where the Saint is so much commanded
for exactitude, he will be expected to be very grateful for his
tablet.
This is foolishness to us Protestants; and not of great importance
anyway. Whether people's gratitude for the good gifts that come to
them be wisely conceived or dutifully expressed, is a secondary
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: head once more, just as one likes to revisit an old
home."
"And then to kiss it good-bye," added the Scarecrow.
"I hope that tin thing won't try to kiss me good-
bye!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman's former head. "And I
don't see what right you folks have to disturb my peace
and comfort, either."
"You belong to me," the Tin Woodman declared.
"I do not!"
"You and I are one."
"We've been parted," asserted the Head. "It would be
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: birth. He might indeed have decided to pretend not to understand me,
so as to avoid all discussion while he held me prisoner.
In that case, what did he mean to do with me? Did he intend to
dispose of me without further ceremony? Was he only waiting for night
to throw me overboard? Did even the little which I knew of him, make
me a danger of which he must rid himself? But in that case, he might
better have left me at the end of his anchor line. That would have
saved him the necessity of drowning me over again.
I turned, I walked to the stern, I stopped full in front of him.
Then, at length, he fixed full upon me a glance that burned like a
flame.
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