| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."
Then with eyes downward cast and fill'd with shame,
Fearing my words offensive to his ear,
Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech
Abstain'd. And lo! toward us in a bark
Comes on an old man hoary white with eld,
Crying, "Woe to you wicked spirits! hope not
Ever to see the sky again. I come
To take you to the other shore across,
Into eternal darkness, there to dwell
In fierce heat and in ice. And thou, who there
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: however, was a long vigil, with every ring of the telephone full
of possibilities. Doctor Walker came up, some time just after
luncheon, and asked for me.
"Go down and see him," I instructed Gertrude. "Tell him I am
out--for mercy's sake don't say I'm sick. Find out what he
wants, and from this time on, instruct the servants that he is
not to be admitted. I loathe that man."
Gertrude came back very soon, her face rather flushed.
"He came to ask us to get out," she said, picking up her book
with a jerk. "He says Louise Armstrong wants to come here, now
that she is recovering"
The Circular Staircase |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: zeal and ability, moderate in itself, excluded all notion of moral
confidence. "He's up to something," he exclaimed mentally, and at
once became angry. Crossing over to his desk with headlong
strides, he sat down violently. "Here I am stuck in a litter of
paper," he reflected, with unreasonable resentment, "supposed to
hold all the threads in my hands, and yet I can but hold what is
put in my hand, and nothing else. And they can fasten the other
ends of the threads where they please."
He raised his head, and turned towards his subordinate a long,
meagre face with the accentuated features of an energetic Don
Quixote.
The Secret Agent |
