| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: his throne again. If ever the two got back their crowns you may
be sure that they wore them more modestly than they did the first
time.
So the Fisherman who had one time unbottled the Genie whom
Solomon the Wise had stoppered up concluded his story, and all of
the good folk who were there began clapping their shadowy hands.
"Aye, aye," said old Bidpai, "there is much truth in what you
say, for it is verily so that that which men call--love--is--the--salt--of--" * * *
His voice had been fading away thinner and thinner and smaller
and smaller--now it was like the shadow of a voice; now it
trembled and quivered out into silence and was gone.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: This is a paradise."
Gertrude said nothing; she sat looking at the dahlias and the
currant-bushes in the garden, while Felix went on with his work.
"To 'enjoy,' " she began at last, "to take life--not painfully,
must one do something wrong?"
Felix gave his long, light laugh again. "Seriously, I think not.
And for this reason, among others: you strike me as very capable
of enjoying, if the chance were given you, and yet at the same time
as incapable of wrong-doing."
"I am sure," said Gertrude, "that you are very wrong
in telling a person that she is incapable of that.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: true cross, short-ribs of the saints, the ears of Balaam's ass, the
lung of the cock that called Peter to repentance and so forth.
Reliquaries are commonly of metal, and provided with a lock to prevent
the contents from coming out and performing miracles at unseasonable
times. A feather from the wing of the Angel of the Annunciation once
escaped during a sermon in Saint Peter's and so tickled the noses of
the congregation that they woke and sneezed with great vehemence three
times each. It is related in the "Gesta Sanctorum" that a sacristan
in the Canterbury cathedral surprised the head of Saint Dennis in the
library. Reprimanded by its stern custodian, it explained that it was
seeking a body of doctrine. This unseemly levity so raged the
The Devil's Dictionary |
