| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: whistled through these ruins, to which the moon, with her indefinite
light, gave the character and outline of a great spectre. But the
colors of those gray-blue granites, mingling with the black and tawny
schists, must have been seen in order to understand how vividly a
spectral image was suggested by the empty and gloomy carcass of the
building. Its disjointed stones and paneless windows, the battered
tower and broken roofs gave it the aspect of a skeleton; the birds of
prey which flew from it, shrieking, added another feature to this
vague resemblance. A few tall pine-trees standing behind the house
waved their dark foliage above the roof, and several yews cut into
formal shapes at the angles of the building, festooned it gloomily
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: Psalms 124: 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalms 125: 1 A Song of Ascents. They that trust in the LORD are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever.
Psalms 125: 2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about His people, from this time forth and for ever.
Psalms 125: 3 For the rod of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; that the righteous put not forth their hands unto iniquity.
Psalms 125: 4 Do good, O LORD, unto the good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.
Psalms 125: 5 But as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel.
Psalms 126: 1 A Song of Ascents. When the LORD brought back those that returned to Zion, we were like unto them that dream.
Psalms 126: 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing; then said they among the nations: 'The LORD hath done great things with these.'
Psalms 126: 3 The LORD hath done great things with us; we are rejoiced.
Psalms 126: 4 Turn our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the dry land.
Psalms 126: 5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: need them too much.
Arrived at this point, we can see how great an antagonism may
naturally arise between the healthy-minded way of viewing life
and the way that takes all this experience of evil as something
essential. To this latter way, the morbid-minded way, as we
might call it, healthy-mindedness pure and simple seems
unspeakably blind and shallow. To the healthy-minded way, on the
other hand, the way of the sick soul seems unmanly and diseased.
With their grubbing in rat-holes instead of living in the light;
with their manufacture of fears, and preoccupation with every
unwholesome kind of misery, there is something almost obscene
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