| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: western gable, where the boards had shrunk and separated,
flashed suddenly into my eyes as stripes of dazzling blue, at
once so dark and splendid that I used to marvel how the
qualities could be combined. At an earlier hour, the heavens
in that quarter were still quietly coloured, but the shoulder
of the mountain which shuts in the canyon already glowed with
sunlight in a wonderful compound of gold and rose and green;
and this too would kindle, although more mildly and with
rainbow tints, the fissures of our crazy gable. If I were
sleeping heavily, it was the bold blue that struck me awake;
if more lightly, then I would come to myself in that earlier
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: them up not only with punishment, but also in the reverence and fear of
God.
Thus you now understand what. it is to take God's name in vain, that is
(to recapitulate briefly), either simply for purposes of falsehood, and
to allege God's name for something that is not so, or to curse, swear,
conjure, and, in short, to practice whatever wickedness one may.
Besides this you must also know how to use the name [of God] aright.
For when saying: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God, in
vain, He gives us to understand at the same time that it is to be used
properly. For it has been revealed and given to us for the very purpose
that it may be of constant use and profit. Hence it is a natural
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: butterfly was her soul."
IV
I had almost forgotten to mention an ancient Japanese dance, called the
Butterfly Dance (Kocho-Mai), which used to be performed in the Imperial
Palace, by dancers costumed as butterflies. Whether it is danced
occasionally nowadays I do not know. It is said to be very difficult to
learn. Six dancers are required for the proper performance of it; and they
must move in particular figures,-- obeying traditional rules for ever step,
pose, or gesture,-- and circling about each other very slowly to the sound
of hand-drums and great drums, small flutes and great flutes, and pandean
pipes of a form unknown to Western Pan.
Kwaidan |
