| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: the kiln, whence immediately issued a gush of fierce light, that
smote full upon the stranger's face and figure. To a careless eye
there appeared nothing very remarkable in his aspect, which was
that of a man in a coarse brown, country-made suit of clothes,
tall and thin, with the staff and heavy shoes of a wayfarer. As
he advanced, he fixed his eyes--which were very bright--intently
upon the brightness of the furnace, as if he beheld, or expected
to behold, some object worthy of note within it.
"Good evening, stranger," said the lime-burner; "whence come you,
so late in the day?"
"I come from my search," answered the wayfarer; "for, at last, it
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: Isaiah 49: 25 But thus saith the LORD: even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; and I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.
Isaiah 49: 26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 50: 1 Thus saith the LORD: Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.
Isaiah 50: 2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish become foul, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
Isaiah 50: 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
Isaiah 50: 4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary; He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught.
The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: They had nothing but me, and I--well, I had THEM. It
was in short a magnificent chance. This chance presented
itself to me in an image richly material. I was a screen--
I was to stand before them. The more I saw, the less they would.
I began to watch them in a stifled suspense, a disguised
excitement that might well, had it continued too long,
have turned to something like madness. What saved me,
as I now see, was that it turned to something else altogether.
It didn't last as suspense--it was superseded by horrible proofs.
Proofs, I say, yes--from the moment I really took hold.
This moment dated from an afternoon hour that I happened
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