| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: madmen. And what report did this spy bring us of Pain, what of
Pleasure, what of Want? That to be clothed in sackcloth is better
than any purple robe; that sleeping on the bare ground is the
softest couch; and in proof of each assertion he points to his
own courage, constancy, and freedom; to his own healthy and
muscular frame. "There is no enemy near," he cries, "all is
perfect peace!"
CLXXXVIII
If a man has this peace--not the peace proclaimed by Caesar
(how indeed should he have it to proclaim?), nay, but the peace
proclaimed by God through reason, will not that suffice him when
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: still less of abandoning it altogether; for gradually a man, as he
grows older, comes to regard his body as, after all, separable from
himself. It is the soul's covering, rendered indispensable by the
climatic conditions of our present existence, one without which we
could no longer continue to live here. To forego it does not
necessarily negative, so far as we yet know, the possibility of
living elsewhere. Some more congenial tropic may be the wandering
spirit's fate. But to part with the sense of self seems to be like
taking an eternal farewell of the soul. The Western mind shrinks
before the bare idea of such a thought.
The clinging to one's own identity, then, is now an instinct,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: dividend was paid next year, it would go to par. But Mr. Beverly did not
counsel buying the stock. 'I did not let mother have any,' he said,
'though I took some myself. But the bonds are different. You're getting
the last that will be sold at par. In three days they will be placed
before the public at 102 1/2 and interest.'"
"I was well pleased when I left Mr. Beverly's office. In a few days I was
still more pleased to learn that I could sell my Petunia sixes for 104 if
so wished. But I did not wish it; and Mr. Beverly told me that he should
not sell his mother's unless they went to 110. 'In that case,' said he,
'it might be worth while to capitalise her premium.'"
"I liked the idea of capitalising one's premium. If you had fifty bonds
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