| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: And men clepe it Mount Joy, for it giveth joy to pilgrims' hearts,
because that there men see first Jerusalem.
Also between Jerusalem and the mount of Olivet is the vale of
Jehosaphat, under the walls of the city, as I have said before.
And in the midst of the vale is a little river that men clepe
TORRENS CEDRON, and above it, overthwart, lay a tree (that the
cross was made of) that men yede over on. And fast by it is a
little pit in the earth, where the foot of the pillar is yet
interred; and there was our Lord first scourged, for he was
scourged and villainously entreated in many places. Also in the
middle place of the vale of Jehosaphat is the church of our Lady:
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: library--aye, to bloom and bear fruit there, after their kind,
annually, for the faithful reader, in sympathy with surrounding
Nature.
I do not know of any poetry to quote which adequately expresses
this yearning for the Wild. Approached from this side, the best
poetry is tame. I do not know where to find in any literature,
ancient or modern, any account which contents me of that Nature
with which even I am acquainted. You will perceive that I demand
something which no Augustan nor Elizabethan age, which no
culture, in short, can give. Mythology comes nearer to it than
anything. How much more fertile a Nature, at least, has Grecian
Walking |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: which the French armies had been drafted in the course of Napoleon's
wars, enjoyed the view before him without appearing to be surprised by
the many changes that swept across it. It would seem that Napoleon has
extinguished in his soldiers the sensation of wonder; for an impassive
face is a sure token by which you may know the men who served erewhile
under the short-lived yet deathless Eagles of the great Emperor. The
traveler was, in fact, one of those soldiers (seldom met with
nowadays) whom shot and shell have respected, although they have borne
their part on every battlefield where Napoleon commanded.
There had been nothing unusual in his life. He had fought valiantly in
the ranks as a simple and loyal soldier, doing his duty as faithfully
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