| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: Rond-Point to the Place de la Concorde. She had repurchased her
horses, for the carriage was just as I was accustomed to see it,
but she was not in it. Scarcely had I noticed this fact, when
looking around me, I saw Marguerite on foot, accompanied by a
woman whom I had never seen.
As she passed me she turned pale, and a nervous smile tightened
about her lips. For my part, my heart beat violently in my
breast; but I succeeded in giving a cold expression to my face,
as I bowed coldly to my former mistress, who just then reached
her carriage, into which she got with her friend.
I knew Marguerite: this unexpected meeting must certainly have
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: break forth with renewed fury, the clamor begins with fresh,
breathless vigor, the engines sob and shriek like "gods in
pain."
As Deborah hurried down through the heavy rain, the noise of
these thousand engines sounded through the sleep and shadow of
the city like far-off thunder. The mill to which she was going
lay on the river, a mile below the city-limits. It was far, and
she was weak, aching from standing twelve hours at the spools.
Yet it was her almost nightly walk to take this man his supper,
though at every square she sat down to rest, and she knew she
should receive small word of thanks.
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: part of the subject, I hope he will come back to me and say:--
"What I desire is to be free from passion and from perturbation;
as one who grudges no pains in the pursuit of piety and
philosophy, what I desire is to know my duty to the Gods, my duty
to my parents, to my brothers, to my country, to strangers."
"Enter then on the second part of the subject; it is thine
also."
"But I have already mastered the second part; only I wished
to stand firm and unshaken--as firm when asleep as when awake,
as firm when elated with wine as in despondency and dejection."
"Friend, you are verily a God! you cherish great designs."
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
