| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: any wrong, you have nevertheless injured your neighbor; and if it is
not called stealing and cheating, yet it is called coveting your
neighbor's property, that is, aiming at possession of it, enticing it
away from him without his will, and being unwilling to see him enjoy
what God has granted him. And although the judge and every one must
leave you in possession of it, yet God will not leave you therein; for
He sees the deceitful heart and the malice of the world, which is sure
to take an ell in addition wherever you yield to her a finger's
breadth, and at length public wrong and violence follow.
Therefore we allow these commandments to remain in their ordinary
meaning, that it is commanded, first, that we do not desire our
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: shock, went up-stairs, and stayed there a long time. When she
came down, the old lady's blue eyes were tenderer, if that were
possible, and her face very pale. She went into the library and
asked her husband if she didn't prophesy this two years ago, and
he said she did, and after a while asked her if she remembered
the barbecue-night at Judge Clapp's thirty years ago. She
blushed at that, and then went up and kissed him. She had heard
Joel's horse clattering up to the kitchen-door, so concluded she
would go out and scold him. Under the circumstances it would be
a relief.
If Mrs. Howth's nerves had been weak, she might have supposed
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: "What class of people are they?"
"Retired merchants; just now in love with art; have a country-house at
Ville d'Avray, and ten or twelve thousand francs a year."
"What business did they do?"
"Bottles."
"Now don't say that word; it makes me think of corks and sets my teeth
on edge."
"Am I to bring them?"
"Three portraits--I could put them in the Salon; I might go in for
portrait-painting. Well, yes!"
Old Elie descended the staircase to go in search of the Vervelle
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