| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: They that thrive well take counsel of their friends.
When thou didst name the boar, not to dissemble,
I fear'd thy fortune, and my joints did tremble.
'Didst thou not mark my face? was it not white?
Saw'st thou not signs of fear lurk in mine eye? 644
Grew I not faint? And fell I not downright?
Within my bosom, whereon thou dost lie,
My boding heart pants, beats, and takes no rest,
But, like an earthquake, shakes thee on my breast.
'For where Love reigns, disturbing Jealousy 649
Doth call himself Affection's sentinel;
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: bare him to regions of darkness and utter woe, where sorrow
matched the brightness which he had seen above. There was
darkness without a ray of light, and utter gloom, and the whole
place was full of tribulation and trouble. There blazed a
glowing furnace of fire, and there crept the worm of torment.
Revengeful powers were set over the furnace, and there were some
that were burning piteously in the fire, and a voice was heard,
saying, "This is the place of sinners; this the punishment for
them that have defiled themselves by foul practices." Hereupon
Ioasaph was carried thence by his guides; and, when he came to
himself, immediately he trembled from head to foot, and, like a
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: in his country, when any young person happened to be put to
death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality, as
a prime dainty; and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl
of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the
Emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of
state, and other great mandarins of the court in joints from the
gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that
if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this
town, who without one single groat to their fortunes, cannot stir
abroad without a chair, and appear at a play-house and assemblies
in foreign fineries which they never will pay for; the kingdom
A Modest Proposal |
