| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: after many a fall; because there is no sin too great for the
clemency of God, if we be quick to repent, and purge the shame of
our offences, and death overtake us not, and depart us not from
this life still defiled; for in the grave there is no confession
nor repentance. But as long as we are `among the living, while
the foundation of our true faith continueth unshattered, even if
somewhat of the outer roof-work or inner building be disabled, it
is allowed to renew by repentance the part rotted by sins. It is
impossible to count the multitude of the mercies of God, or
measure the greatness of his compassion: whereas sins and
offences, of whatever kind, are subject to measure and may be
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: view of life. We glorify the soldier as the man absolutely
unincumbered. Owning nothing but his bare life, and willing to
toss that up at any moment when the cause commands him, he is the
representative of unhampered freedom in ideal directions. The
laborer who pays with his person day by day, and has no rights
invested in the future, offers also much of this ideal
detachment. Like the savage, he may make his bed wherever his
right arm can support him, and from his simple and athletic
attitude of observation, the property-owner seems buried and
smothered in ignoble externalities and trammels, "wading in straw
and rubbish to his knees." The claims which THINGS make are
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: she is twice as rich as she was; she will marry me----"
And he ate in a way that would have roused the envy of an invalid
Croesus, if he could have seen him; and he drank floods of capital
port wine.
"Now I understand the knowing little air she put on as she said, 'Till
this evening!' Perhaps she means to come and break the spell. What a
fine bed! and in the bed-place such a pretty lamp! Quite a Florentine
idea!"
There are some strongly blended natures on which extremes of joy or of
grief have a soporific effect. Now on a youth so compounded that he
could idealize his mistress to the point of ceasing to think of her as
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