| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: opening a door to sinful lusts, and clinging obstinately to them,
have no more had strength to hasten back to repentance; and
others, being untimely snatched by death, and having not made
speed enough to wash them from the pollution of their sin, have
been damned. And for this cause it is parlous to fall into any
kind of sinful affection whatsoever. But if any man fall, he
must at once leap up, and stand again to fight the good fight:
and, as often as there cometh a fall, so often must there at once
ensue this rising and standing, unto the end. For, `Turn ye unto
me, and I will turn unto you,' saith the Lord God."
XII.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Poems by T. S. Eliot: The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
Rhapsody on a Windy Night
Twelve o'clock.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: Bring me a flagon of cold water to christen my sack withal."
While Lambourne, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have
recalled to a sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing
to receive him, Giles Gosling stole up to the apartment of the
pedlar, whom he found traversing the room in much agitation.
"You withdrew yourself suddenly from the company," said the
landlord to the guest.
"It was time, when the devil became one among you," replied the
pedlar.
"It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name,"
said Gosling, "nor is it kindly in me to reply to it; and yet, in
Kenilworth |
