| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Koran: forgiving, the merciful.'
Say, 'I am not an innovator among the apostles; nor do I know what
will be done with me or with you if I follow aught but what I am
inspired with; nor am I aught but a plain warner.'
Say, 'Have ye considered, if it is from God and ye have
disbelieved therein, and a witness from the children of Israel
testifies to the conformity of it, and he believes while ye are too
big with pride? Verily, God guides not the unjust people.'
And those who misbelieve say of those. who believe, 'If it had
been good, they would not have been beforehand with us therein;' and
when they are not guided thereby, then will they say, 'This is an
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: the end of it all? The young ecstatic married a man who was
younger and handsomer than Goethe. Now, between ourselves, let us
admit that a young girl who should make herself the handmaid of a
man of genius, his equal through comprehension, and should piously
worship him till death, like one of those divine figures sketched
by the masters on the shutters of their mystic shrines, and who,
when Germany lost him, should have retired to some solitude away
from men, like the friend of Lord Bolingbroke,--let us admit, I
say, that the young girl would have lived forever, inlaid in the
glory of the poet as Mary Magdalene in the cross and triumph of
our Lord. If that is sublime, what say you to the reverse of the
Modeste Mignon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: How cold the night is! We must ride faster.
[The Monks begin to chant outside.]
Music! It should be merrier; but grief
Is of the fashion now - I know not why.
You must not weep: do we not love each other? -
That is enough. Death, what do you here?
You were not bidden to this table, sir;
Away, we have no need of you: I tell you
It was in wine I pledged you, not in poison.
They lied who told you that I drank your poison.
It was spilt upon the ground, like my Lord's blood;
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