| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: a West as distant and as fair as that into which the sun goes
down. He appears to migrate westward daily, and tempt us to
follow him. He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations
follow. We dream all night of those mountain-ridges in the
horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which were last gilded
by his rays. The island of Atlantis, and the islands and gardens
of the Hesperides, a sort of terrestrial paradise, appear to have
been the Great West of the ancients, enveloped in mystery and
poetry. Who has not seen in imagination, when looking into the
sunset sky, the gardens of the Hesperides, and the foundation of
all those fables?
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: instead of permitting it, and frequently repulses pleasure instead of
desiring it. Then, the whole aspect of a man's life changes. The
bachelor, who is free and without a care, need never fear repulsion;
in marriage, repulsion is almost certain and irreparable. It may be
possible for a lover to make a woman reverse an unfavorable decision,
but such a change, my dear Paul, is the Waterloo of husbands. Like
Napoleon, the husband is thenceforth condemned to victories which, in
spite of their number, do not prevent the first defeat from crushing
him. The woman, so flattered by the perseverance, so delighted with
the ardor of a lover, calls the same things brutality in a husband.
You, who talk of marrying, and who will marry, have you ever meditated
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: free pardon. But, in sooth, I cannot let you roam the forest as ye
have done in the past; therefore I will take thee at thy word,
when thou didst say thou wouldst give thy service to me,
and thou shalt go back to London with me. We will take that bold
knave Little John also, and likewise thy cousin, Will Scarlet,
and thy minstrel, Allan a Dale. As for the rest of thy band,
we will take their names and have them duly recorded as royal rangers;
for methinks it were wiser to have them changed to law-abiding
caretakers of our deer in Sherwood than to leave them to run
at large as outlawed slayers thereof. But now get a feast ready;
I would see how ye live in the woodlands."
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
