| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: as a demon, was Bagheera. There was one half-minute of desperate
silence, as the front ranks of the crowd clawed and tore their
way back from the threshold, and in that minute Bagheera raised
his head and yawned--elaborately, carefully, and ostentatiously
--as he would yawn when he wished to insult an equal. The
fringed lips drew back and up; the red tongue curled; the lower
jaw dropped and dropped till you could see half-way down the hot
gullet; and the gigantic dog-teeth stood clear to the pit of the
gums till they rang together, upper and under, with the snick of
steel-faced wards shooting home round the edges of a safe.
Next instant the street was empty; Bagheera had leaped back
The Second Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: which if we had been content, gentlemen, all had gone well. And
some were willing to go back at once, having both treasure and
pearls in plenty; but Mr. O., he waxed right mad, and swore to slay
any one who made that motion again, assuring us that the Lima ship
of which he had news was far greater and richer, and would make
princes of us all; which bark came in sight on the sixteenth day,
and was taken without shot or slaughter. The taking of which bark,
I verily believe, was the ruin of every mother's son of us."
And being asked why, he answered, "First, because of the discontent
which was bred thereby; for on board was found no gold, but only
100,000 pezos of silver."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: when they began to talk nonsense, and went so far that Lord Robert
at last said, as I was on the spot there was no reason why they
should not be married if the queen pleased.
293. Cf. PURGATORIO, v. 133:
'Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia;
Siena mi fe', disfecemi Maremma.'
307. _V._ St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS: 'to Carthage then I came,
where a cauldron of unholy loves sang all about mine ears'.
308. The complete text of the Buddha's Fire Sermon (which corresponds
in importance to the Sermon on the Mount) from which these words are taken,
will be found translated in the late Henry Clarke Warren's _Buddhism
The Waste Land |
