| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: first period of his earthly existence. Every one chooses his love from the
ranks of beauty according to his character, and this he makes his god, and
fashions and adorns as a sort of image which he is to fall down and
worship. The followers of Zeus desire that their beloved should have a
soul like him; and therefore they seek out some one of a philosophical and
imperial nature, and when they have found him and loved him, they do all
they can to confirm such a nature in him, and if they have no experience of
such a disposition hitherto, they learn of any one who can teach them, and
themselves follow in the same way. And they have the less difficulty in
finding the nature of their own god in themselves, because they have been
compelled to gaze intensely on him; their recollection clings to him, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: sake combined, the symposium of poets breaks up.
Sometimes, instead of a company of friends, a man will take his
family, wife, babies, and all, on such an outing, but the details of
his holiday are much the same as before. For the scenery is still
the centre of attraction, and in the attendant creature comforts Far
Eastern etiquette permits an equal enjoyment to man, woman, and
child.
This love of nature is quite irrespective of social condition.
All classes feel its force, and freely indulge the feeling. Poor as
well as rich, low as well as high, contrive to gratify their poetic
instincts for natural scenery. As for flowers, especially tree
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: guards and a drummer patrolled about the house all night;
they had no shift, poor devils; but stood to arms from sun-
down to sun-up.
About four in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of a
whistle pipe blown outside on the dark, very softly and to a
pleasing simple air; I really think I have hit the first
phrase:
[Fragment of music score which cannot be reproduced]
It sounded very peaceful, sweet and strange in the dark; and
I found this was a part of the routine of my rebel's night,
and it was done (he said) to give good dreams. By a little
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