| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: I know that, till to-morrow I shall see the sun arise,
No ugly dream shall fright my mind, no ugly sight my eyes.
But slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn,
And hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn.
XXI
Escape at Bedtime
The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne'er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
A Child's Garden of Verses |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: Cambremer, as if it was ordained, came back that day in his boat; as
he landed he saw a bit of paper floating in the water, and he picked
it up, looked at it, and carried it to his wife, who fell down as if
dead, seeing her own writing. Cambremer said nothing, but he went to
Croisic, and heard that his son was in a billiard room; so then he
went to the mistress of the cafe, and said to her:--
"'I told Jacques not to use a piece of gold with which he will pay
you; give it back to me, and I'll give you white money in place of
it.'
"The good woman did as she was told. Cambremer took the money and just
said 'Good,' and then he went home. So far, all the town knows that;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: went back to the window only to see that the air was clear
again and--by my personal triumph--the influence quenched?
There was nothing there. I felt that the cause was mine
and that I should surely get ALL. "And you found nothing!"--
I let my elation out.
He gave the most mournful, thoughtful little headshake. "Nothing."
"Nothing, nothing!" I almost shouted in my joy.
"Nothing, nothing," he sadly repeated.
I kissed his forehead; it was drenched. "So what have you done with it?"
"I've burned it."
"Burned it?" It was now or never. "Is that what you did at school?"
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