| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: The effect was magical! It was the name of the islands on which La
Perouse had been lost! I rose suddenly.
"The Nautilus has brought us to Vanikoro?" I asked.
"Yes, Professor," said the Captain.
"And I can visit the celebrated islands where the Boussole
and the Astrolabe struck?"
"If you like, Professor."
"When shall we be there?"
"We are there now."
Followed by Captain Nemo, I went up on to the platform,
and greedily scanned the horizon.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: without considering the distant parts of the solar system with
which we are acquainted. Do not, therefore, in thy administration
of the year, indulge thy pride by innovation; do not please thyself
with thinking that thou canst make thyself renowned to all future
ages by disordering the seasons. The memory of mischief is no
desirable fame. Much less will it become thee to let kindness or
interest prevail. Never rob other countries of rain to pour it on
thine own. For us the Nile is sufficient.'
"I promised that when I possessed the power I would use it with
inflexible integrity; and he dismissed me, pressing my hand. 'My
heart,' said he, 'will be now at rest, and my benevolence will no
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: spark of the soul is more at peace than in itself."[266] As when
Boehme writes of the Primal Love, that "it may fitly be compared
to Nothing, for it is deeper than any Thing, and is as nothing
with respect to all things, forasmuch as it is not comprehensible
by any of them. And because it is nothing respectively, it is
therefore free from all things, and is that only good, which a
man cannot express or utter what it is, there being nothing to
which it may be compared, to express it by."[267] Or as when
Angelus Silesius sings:--
"Gott ist ein lauter Nichts, ihn ruhrt kein Nun noch Hier;
Je mehr du nach ihm greiffst, je mehr entwind er dir."[268]
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