| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: sternly, "that I find it so cold in this house?"
"Cold, Sir?" said the housekeeper, "why, now, since
you speak of it it do seem cold in this room. But, out-
doors it's as warm and fine as June, sir. And how this
weather do seem to make one's heart jump out of one's
shirt waist, sir. And the ivy all leaved out on the side
of the house, and the hand-organs playing, and the
children dancing on the sidewalk -- 'tis a great time for
speaking out what's in the heart. You were saying
yesterday, sir -- "
"Woman!" roared Mr. Coulson; "you are a fool. I
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Cowardly Lion, who sniffed at it as if he did not like it, the
Wizard said:
"Drink."
"What is it?" asked the Lion.
"Well," answered Oz, "if it were inside of you, it would be courage.
You know, of course, that courage is always inside one; so that this
really cannot be called courage until you have swallowed it. Therefore
I advise you to drink it as soon as possible."
The Lion hesitated no longer, but drank till the dish was empty.
"How do you feel now?" asked Oz.
"Full of courage," replied the Lion, who went joyfully back to
The Wizard of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: in a moment he had exercised it, proved it, wearied of it. What had
hitherto been the sum of human desires became as nothing. So often it
happens that with possession the vast poetry of desire must end, and
the thing possessed is seldom the thing that we dreamed of.
Beneath Melmoth's omnipotence lurked this tragical anticlimax of so
many a passion, and now the inanity of human nature was revealed to
his successor, to whom infinite power brought Nothingness as a dowry.
To come to a clear understanding of Castanier's strange position, it
must be borne in mind how suddenly these revolutions of thought and
feeling had been wrought; how quickly they had succeeded each other;
and of these things it is hard to give any idea to those who have
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