| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: be no festering and wretched suburb anywhere, but clean and busy
street within, and the open country without, with a belt of
beautiful garden and orchard round the walls, so that from any part
of the city perfectly fresh air and grass, and sight of far horizon,
might be reachable in a few minutes' walk. This the final aim; but
in immediate action every minor and possible good to be instantly
done, when, and as, we can; roofs mended that have holes in them--
fences patched that have gaps in them--walls' buttressed that
totter--and floors propped that shake; cleanliness and order
enforced with our own hands and eyes, till we are breathless, every
day. And all the fine arts will healthily follow. I myself have
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: One day I pass, then disappear;
I die, and on the tomb where I at length shall rest
No friend shall come to shed a tear.
You remember the same thing in other words some where in Kirke
White's poems. It is the burden of the plaintive songs of all
these sweet albino-poets. "I shall die and be forgotten, and the
world will go on just as if I had never been; - and yet how I have
loved! how I have longed! how I have aspired!" And so singing,
their eyes grow brighter and brighter, and their features thinner
and thinner, until at last the veil of flesh is threadbare, and,
still singing, they drop it and pass onward.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: Edg. Arm'd, brother?
Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best. Go arm'd. I am no
honest man
if there be any good meaning toward you. I have told you
what I
have seen and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image and
horror of it. Pray you, away!
Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?
Edm. I do serve you in this business.
Exit Edgar.
A credulous father! and a brother noble,
King Lear |
