| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: "Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have
never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched.
I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent.
I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride,
of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair.
Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation,
and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge?
He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice,
a cry that was no more than a breath:
"`The horror! The horror!'
"I blew the candle out and left the cabin. The pilgrims were dining
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: to the Sheriff, "If thou must go, worshipful sir, go thou must;
but thou hast forgotten one thing."
"Nay, I forgot nought," said the Sheriff; yet all the same his heart
sank within him.
"But I say thou hast forgot something," quoth Robin. "We keep
a merry inn here in the greenwood, but whoever becometh our guest
must pay his reckoning."
Then the Sheriff laughed, but the laugh was hollow. "Well, jolly boys,"
quoth he, "we have had a merry time together today, and even if ye had
not asked me, I would have given you a score of pounds for the sweet
entertainment I have had."
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: heavenly and the earthly, I cannot tell, for Zeus, who is one and
indivisible, bears many titles.[20] But this thing I know, that these
twain have separate altars, shrines, and sacrifices,[21] as befits
their nature--she that is earthly, of a lighter and a laxer sort; she
that is heavenly, purer and holier in type. And you may well
conjecture, it is the earthly goddess, the common Aphrodite, who sends
forth the bodily loves; while from her that is named of heaven,
Ourania, proceed those loves which feed upon the soul, on friendship
and on noble deeds. It is by this latter, Callias, that you are held
in bonds, if I mistake not, Love divine.[22] This I infer as well from
the fair and noble character of your friend, as from the fact that you
The Symposium |
