| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: the way, to keep it for private consumption. He felt himself
grimace, he heard himself exaggerate the proper, but was conscious
of turning not a little faint. That new woman, that hired
performer, Mrs. Creston? Mrs. Creston had been more living for him
than any woman but one. This lady had a face that shone as
publicly as the jeweller's window, and in the happy candour with
which she wore her monstrous character was an effect of gross
immodesty. The character of Paul Creston's wife thus attributed to
her was monstrous for reasons Stransom could judge his friend to
know perfectly that he knew. The happy pair had just arrived from
America, and Stransom hadn't needed to be told this to guess the
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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: upon it, and enervateth those that put their trust therein. It
maketh covenants with fools and fair false promises, only that it
may allure them to itself. But, as they have dealt
treacherously, it proveth itself treacherous and false in
fulfilling none of its pledges. To-day it tickleth their gullet
with pleasant dainties; to-morrow it maketh them nought but a
gobbet for their enemies. To-day it maketh a man a king:
to-morrow it delivereth him into bitter servitude. To-day its
thrall is fattening on a thousand good things; to-morrow he is a
beggar, and drudge of drudges. To-day it placeth on his head a
crown of glory; to-morrow it dasheth his face upon the ground.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: money-maker; the fourth, into a gymnast; the fifth, into a prophet or
mystic; the sixth, into a poet or imitator; the seventh, into a husbandman
or craftsman; the eighth, into a sophist or demagogue; the ninth, into a
tyrant. All these are states of probation, wherein he who lives
righteously is improved, and he who lives unrighteously deteriorates.
After death comes the judgment; the bad depart to houses of correction
under the earth, the good to places of joy in heaven. When a thousand
years have elapsed the souls meet together and choose the lives which they
will lead for another period of existence. The soul which three times in
succession has chosen the life of a philosopher or of a lover who is not
without philosophy receives her wings at the close of the third millennium;
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