| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: will find yourself with few supporters.
Damien HAD NO HAND IN THE REFORMS, ETC.
I think even you will admit that I have already been frank in my
description of the man I am defending; but before I take you up
upon this head, I will be franker still, and tell you that perhaps
nowhere in the world can a man taste a more pleasurable sense of
contrast than when he passes from Damien's "Chinatown" at Kalawao
to the beautiful Bishop-Home at Kalaupapa. At this point, in my
desire to make all fair for you, I will break my rule and adduce
Catholic testimony. Here is a passage from my diary about my visit
to the Chinatown, from which you will see how it is (even now)
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: my life fast asleepe: obserue her, stand close
Doct. How came she by that light?
Gent. Why it stood by her: she ha's light by her continually,
'tis her command
Doct. You see her eyes are open
Gent. I, but their sense are shut
Doct. What is it she do's now?
Looke how she rubbes her hands
Gent. It is an accustom'd action with her, to seeme
thus washing her hands: I haue knowne her continue in
this a quarter of an houre
Macbeth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Unless, by the ploughshare turning the fruitful clods
And kneading the mould, we quicken into birth,
[The crops] spontaneously could not come up
Into the free bright air. Even then sometimes,
When things acquired by the sternest toil
Are now in leaf, are now in blossom all,
Either the skiey sun with baneful heats
Parches, or sudden rains or chilling rime
Destroys, or flaws of winds with furious whirl
Torment and twist. Beside these matters, why
Doth nature feed and foster on land and sea
Of The Nature of Things |
