| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: unanswerable questions again and again, in tears, as madmen
repeat their tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its friends
heavenly slumbers full of beautiful dreams.
"Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread
soaked in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile
Auvergne accent:
" 'Mouchieur l'Etudiant, I am a poor man, a foundling from the
hospital at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not
rich enough to marry. You are not fertile in relations either,
nor well supplied with the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart
downstairs which I have hired for two sous an hour; it will hold
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: supposed to be the spirits of the thousands doomed to perish in battle, and
agitated on the eve of war by some mysterious premonition of death.
However, in Japanese belief, a butterfly may be the soul of a dead person
as well as of a living person. Indeed it is a custom of souls to take
butterfly-shape in order to announce the fact of their final departure from
the body; and for this reason any butterfly which enters a house ought to
be kindly treated.
To this belief, and to queer fancies connected with it, there are many
allusions in popular drama. For example, there is a well-known play called
Tonde-deru-Kocho-no-Kanzashi; or, "The Flying Hairpin of Kocho." Kocho is a
beautiful person who kills herself because of false accusations and cruel
Kwaidan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: "The friend of your brothers in Burzee," answered Claus. "I have been
brought here by my enemies, the Awgwas, and left to perish miserably.
Yet now I implore your help to release me and to send me home again."
"Have you the sign?" asked another.
"Yes," said Claus.
They cut his bonds, and with his free arms he made the secret sign of
the Knooks.
Instantly they assisted him to stand upon his feet, and they brought
him food and drink to strengthen him.
"Our brothers of Burzee make queer friends," grumbled an ancient Knook
whose flowing beard was pure white. "But he who knows our secret sign
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
