| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: admired, and which, beautiful beside even the Adam of Mabuse, betrayed
the imperial touch of a great artist,--in short, everything about the
strange old man seemed beyond the limits of human nature. The rich
imagination of the youth fastened upon the one perceptible and clear
clew to the mystery of this supernatural being,--the presence of the
artistic nature, that wild impassioned nature to which such mighty
powers have been confided, which too often abuses those powers, and
drags cold reason and common souls, and even lovers of art, over stony
and arid places, where for such there is neither pleasure nor
instruction; while to the artistic soul itself,--that white-winged
angel of sportive fancy,--epics, works of art, and visions rise along
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: attention. And they say also that there are cases in which the actual
facts, if they are improbable, ought to be withheld, and only the
probabilities should be told either in accusation or defence, and that
always in speaking, the orator should keep probability in view, and say
good-bye to the truth. And the observance of this principle throughout a
speech furnishes the whole art.
PHAEDRUS: That is what the professors of rhetoric do actually say,
Socrates. I have not forgotten that we have quite briefly touched upon
this matter already; with them the point is all-important.
SOCRATES: I dare say that you are familiar with Tisias. Does he not
define probability to be that which the many think?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "We will do that with pleasure," cried the Yips, and at once they
turned and began to climb up the steep mountain, feeling they had had
quite enough of this unsatisfactory adventure. Cayke the Cookie Cook
did not go with them, however. She sat on a rock and wept and wailed
and was very miserable.
"Well," said the Frogman to her, "I will now bid you goodbye. If I
find your diamond-decorated gold dishpan, I will promise to see that
it is safely returned to you."
"But I prefer to find it myself!" she said. "See here, Frogman, why
can't you carry me across the gulf when you leap it? You are big and
strong, while I am small and thin."
The Lost Princess of Oz |
