| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: Syracusans. Though he had used this moderation, he still esteemed the
condition of that city to be pitiable, and, even amidst the
congratulations and joy, showed his strong feelings of sympathy and
commiseration at seeing all the riches accumulated during a long
felicity, now dissipated in an hour. For it is related, that no less
prey and plunder was taken here, than afterward in Carthage. For not
long after, they obtained also the plunder of the other parts of the city,
which were taken by treachery; leaving nothing untouched but the king's
money, which was brought into the public treasury. But nothing afflicted
Marcellus so much as the death of Archimedes; who was then, as fate would
have it, intent upon working out some problem by a diagram, and having
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: his grizzled beard thoughtfully for many minutes. Then suddenly he
stood up straight, and poised his powerful head with firm resolve, and
stretched out his great right arm as if determined on doing some
mighty deed. For a thought had come to him so grand in its conception
that all the world might well bow before the Master Woodsman and honor
his name forever!
It is well known that when the great Ak once undertakes to do a
thing he never hesitates an instant. Now he summoned his fleetest
messengers, and sent them in a flash to many parts of the earth.
And when they were gone he turned to the anxious Necile and
comforted her, saying:
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: grievous to be borne, and depart their true kindred. This is the
struggle in which your Master and Teacher, were he worthy of the
name, should be engaged. You would come to me and say:
"Epictetus, we can no longer endure being chained to this
wretched body, giving food and drink and rest and purification:
aye, and for its sake forced to be subservient to this man and
that. Are these not things indifferent and nothing to us? Is it
not true that death is no evil? Are we not in a manner kinsmen of
the Gods, and have we not come from them? Let us depart thither,
whence we came: let us be freed from these chains that confine
and press us down. Here are thieves and robbers and tribunals:
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
