| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: body, and be but a breath, or a ray, and glide, mount up to thee, O
Mother!"
She raised her arms to their full length, arching her form, which in
its long garment was as pale and light as the moon. Then she fell
back, panting, on the ivory couch; but Taanach passed an amber
necklace with dolphin's teeth about her neck to banish terrors, and
Salammbo said in an almost stifled voice: "Go and bring me
Schahabarim."
Her father had not wished her to enter the college of priestesses, nor
even to be made at all acquainted with the popular Tanith. He was
reserving her for some alliance that might serve his political ends;
 Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest: That for the home they've built to share
No longer does her husband care;
That he seems happier away
Than by her side, and every day
That passes leaves them more apart;
And then perhaps her tears would start
And in a softened voice she'd add:
"Sometimes I wonder, if we had
A baby now to love, if he
Would find so many faults in me?"
And if he came to tell his woe
 Just Folks |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: I presume it is describable in the language of Flatland."
SPHERE. Oh, certainly. It is all plain and simple,
and in strict accordance with Analogy -- only, by the way,
you must not speak of the result as being a Figure, but as a Solid.
But I will describe it to you. Or rather not I, but Analogy.
We began with a single Point, which of course -- being itself a Point
-- has only ONE terminal Point.
One Point produces a Line with TWO terminal Points.
One Line produces a Square with FOUR terminal Points.
Now you can give yourself the answer to your own question: 1, 2, 4,
are evidently in Geometrical Progression. What is the next number?
 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |