| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: like a dream of the Middle Ages. I floated down its historic
stream in something more than imagination, under bridges built by
the Romans, and repaired by later heroes, past cities and castles
whose very names were music to my ears, and each of which was the
subject of a legend. There were Ehrenbreitstein and Rolandseck
and Coblentz, which I knew only in history. They were ruins that
interested me chiefly. There seemed to come up from its waters
and its vine-clad hills and valleys a hushed music as of
Crusaders departing for the Holy Land. I floated along under the
spell of enchantment, as if I had been transported to an heroic
age, and breathed an atmosphere of chivalry.
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: And then she stared at him with a bewildered air.
By dint of searching and ransacking his pockets, Marius had finally
collected five francs sixteen sous. This was all he owned in the world
for the moment. "At all events," he thought, "there is my dinner
for to-day, and to-morrow we will see." He kept the sixteen sous,
and handed the five francs to the young girl.
She seized the coin.
"Good!" said she, "the sun is shining!"
And, as though the sun had possessed the property of melting
the avalanches of slang in her brain, she went on:--
"Five francs! the shiner! a monarch! in this hole! Ain't this fine!
Les Miserables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: In this manner I distributed my occupations when I first arrived,
but as I proceeded in my labour, it became every day more
horrible and irksome to me. Sometimes I could not prevail on
myself to enter my laboratory for several days, and at other times
I toiled day and night in order to complete my work. It was,
indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged. During my first
experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the
horror of my employment; my mind was intently fixed on the
consummation of my labour, and my eyes were shut to the horror of
my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart
often sickened at the work of my hands.
Frankenstein |
