| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her talons. But it
happened there was no danger, for the cat took not the least
notice of me when my master placed me within three yards of her.
And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in
my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce
animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I
resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to show no manner of
concern. I walked with intrepidity five or six times before the
very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her;
whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of
me: I had less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: danger I harried her with questions about Mrs. Meldrum and, without
waiting for replies, became profuse on the subject of my own
doings. My companion was finely silent, and I felt both as if she
were watching my nervousness with a sort of sinister irony and as
if I were talking to some different and strange person. Flora
plain and obscure and dumb was no Flora at all. At Mrs. Meldrum's
door she turned off with the observation that as there was
certainly a great deal I should have to say to our friend she had
better not go in with me. I looked at her again--I had been
keeping my eyes away from her--but only to meet her magnified
stare. I greatly desired in truth to see Mrs. Meldrum alone, but
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Upon the eyes cannot be singly seen,
The things themselves may be perceived. For thus
When the wind beats upon us stroke by stroke
And when the sharp cold streams, 'tis not our wont
To feel each private particle of wind
Or of that cold, but rather all at once;
And so we see how blows affect our body,
As if one thing were beating on the same
And giving us the feel of its own body
Outside of us. Again, whene'er we thump
With finger-tip upon a stone, we touch
Of The Nature of Things |
