| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: folly from the consequences of which he had been saved by the
providence that watches over madmen. He had little leisure to
observe Alexa; but he concluded that the common-sense momentarily
denied him had counselled her uncritical acceptance of the
inevitable. If such a quality was a poor substitute for the
passionate justness that had once seemed to characterize her, he
accepted the alternative as a part of that general lowering of the
key that seems needful to the maintenance of the matrimonial duet.
What woman ever retained her abstract sense of justice where
another woman was concerned? Possibly the thought that he had
profited by Mrs. Aubyn's tenderness was not wholly disagreeable to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: (even to-day) a pitiful place to visit and a hell to dwell
in. It is not the fear of possible infection. That seems a
little thing when compared with the pain, the pity, and the
disgust of the visitor's surroundings, and the atmosphere of
affliction, disease, and physical disgrace in which he
breathes. I do not think I am a man more than usually timid;
but I never recall the days and nights I spent upon that
island promontory (eight days and seven nights), without
heartfelt thankfulness that I am somewhere else. I find in
my diary that I speak of my stay as a 'grinding experience':
I have once jotted in the margin, 'HARROWING is the word';
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: - 'Tis strange! writes Bevoriskius; but the facts are certain, for
I have had the curiosity to mark them down one by one with my pen;
- but the cock sparrow, during the little time that I could have
finished the other half of this note, has actually interrupted me
with the reiteration of his caresses three-and-twenty times and a
half.
How merciful, adds Bevoriskius, is heaven to his creatures!
Ill fated Yorick! that the gravest of thy brethren should be able
to write that to the world, which stains thy face with crimson to
copy, even in thy study.
But this is nothing to my travels. - So I twice, - twice beg pardon
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