| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: not prefer to have those who voluntarily do wrong and make mistakes, and
are they not better in their mistakes than those who commit them
involuntarily?
HIPPIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And should we not desire to have our own minds in the best state
possible?
HIPPIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And will our minds be better if they do wrong and make mistakes
voluntarily or involuntarily?
HIPPIAS: O, Socrates, it would be a monstrous thing to say that those who
do wrong voluntarily are better than those who do wrong involuntarily!
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: And may not weare them, O here comes my Nurse:
Enter Nurse with cords.
And she brings newes and euery tongue that speaks
But Romeos name, speakes heauenly eloquence:
Now Nurse, what newes? what hast thou there?
The Cords that Romeo bid thee fetch?
Nur. I, I, the Cords
Iuli. Ay me, what newes?
Why dost thou wring thy hands
Nur. A weladay, hee's dead, hee's dead,
We are vndone Lady, we are vndone.
Romeo and Juliet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: by one, from the head of this wedded Jephtha. Wait; do not see her
yet. You would bring to her the atmosphere of the court; she would see
in your face the reflection of the things of life, and you would add
to the bitterness of her regret. Have pity on a weakness which God
Himself forgave to His Son when He took our nature upon Him. What
merit would there be in conquering if we had no adversary? Permit her
confessor or me, two old men whose worn-out lives cause her no pain,
to prepare her for this unlooked-for meeting, for emotions which the
Abbe Birotteau has required her to renounce. But, in the things of
this world there is an invisible thread of divine purpose which
religion alone can see; and since you have come perhaps you are led by
The Lily of the Valley |
