| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: middle of the house front, with two windows on each side. Right
and left of the path were first a bed of gooseberry bushes; next
of currant; next of raspberry; next of strawberry; next of old-
fashioned flowers; at the corners opposite the porch being spheres
of box resembling a pair of school globes. Over the roof of the
house could be seen the orchard, on yet higher ground, and behind
the orchard the forest-trees, reaching up to the crest of the
hill.
Opposite the garden door and visible from the parlor window was a
swing-gate leading into a field, across which there ran a foot-
path. The swing-gate had just been repainted, and on one fine
The Woodlanders |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: state," said the Comte de Vandenesse. "In these days every rogue who
can hold his head straight in his collar, cover his manly bosom with
half an ell of satin by way of a cuirass, display a brow where
apocryphal genius gleams under curling locks, and strut in a pair of
patent-leather pumps graced by silk socks which cost six francs,
screws his eye-glass into one of his eye-sockets by puckering up his
cheek, and whether he be an attorney's clerk, a contractor's son, or a
banker's bastard, he stares impertinently at the prettiest duchess,
appraises her as she walks downstairs, and says to his friend--dressed
by Buisson, as we all are, and mounted in patent-leather like any duke
himself--'There, my boy, that is a perfect lady.' "
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: anointing, that is, the Spirit of God, teacheth you of all
things."
Yet we must not despair if we are not soon rid of the temptation,
nor by any means imagine that we are free from it as long as we
live, and we must regard it only as an incentive and admonition
to prayer, fasting, watching, laboring, and to other exercises
for the quenching of the flesh, especially to the practice and
exercise of faith in God. For that chastity is not precious which
is at ease, but that which is at war with unchastity, and fights,
and without ceasing drives out all the poison with which the
flesh and the evil spirit attack it. Thus St. Peter says, "I
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