| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: also lighter because of the great interstices which it has within itself;
and this substance, which is one of the bright and denser kinds of water,
when solidified is called copper. There is an alloy of earth mingled with
it, which, when the two parts grow old and are disunited, shows itself
separately and is called rust. The remaining phenomena of the same kind
there will be no difficulty in reasoning out by the method of
probabilities. A man may sometimes set aside meditations about eternal
things, and for recreation turn to consider the truths of generation which
are probable only; he will thus gain a pleasure not to be repented of, and
secure for himself while he lives a wise and moderate pastime. Let us
grant ourselves this indulgence, and go through the probabilities relating
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: 'And now farewell. We meet no more till the hour of sacrifice, for
we women who masquerade as wives must accompany you to the first
platforms of the temple. Farewell, dear friend, and think upon my
words; whether they are acceptable to you or no, I am sure of this,
that both for the sake of your own honour and because I ask it of
you, you will die bravely as though the eyes of your own people
were watching all.' And bending suddenly, Otomie kissed me on the
forehead gently as a sister might, and was gone.
The curtains swung behind her, but the echoes of her noble words
still dwelt in my heart. Nothing can make man look on death
lovingly, and that awaiting me was one from which the bravest would
Montezuma's Daughter |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me
that I never had heard the town-clock strike before, nor the evening
sounds of the village; for we slept with the windows open, which
were inside the grating. It was to see my native village in the
light of the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine
stream, and visions of knights and castles passed before me. They
were the voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was
an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said
in the kitchen of the adjacent village-inn -- a wholly new and rare
experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was
fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before.
Walden |
