| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: Phoenician origin, replaced the tinkling bells. The attitudes of the
dancing nymph now denoted overpowering lassitude. Her bosom heaved
with sighs, and her whole being expressed profound languor, although
it was not clear whether she sighed for an absent swain or was
expiring of love in his embrace. With half-closed eyes and quivering
form, she caused mysterious undulations to flow downward over her
whole body, like rippling waves, while her face remained impassive and
her twinkling feet still moved in their intricate steps.
Vitellius compared her to Mnester, the famous pantomimist. Aulus was
overcome with faintness. The tetrarch watched her, lost in a
voluptuous reverie, and thought no more of the real Herodias. In fancy
 Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: wrapped a thick cloak round him. He thus secured for himself a
most miserable bed; for hard pea-stalks lay in humps under his
head, the cross with the sharp nails stuck into his back, his
arms were locked fast in bonds, the horsehair undergarment was
round his loins, and the cloak too was heavy and the door hard.
Thus he lay in wretchedness, afraid to stir, just like a log, and
he would send up many a sigh to God.
"In winter he suffered very much from the frost. If he stretched
out his feet they lay bare on the floor and froze, if he gathered
them up the blood became all on fire in his legs, and this was
great pain. His feet were full of sores, his legs dropsical, his
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: and lay down. And barely had I got comfortable when the door opened and
Frau Fischer entered.
"The Herr Rat had a bathing appointment," she said, shutting the door after
her. "May I come in? Pray do not move. You look like a little Persian
kitten. Now, tell me something really interesting about your life. When I
meet new people I squeeze them dry like a sponge. To begin with--you are
married."
I admit the fact.
"Then, dear child, where is your husband?"
I said he was a sea-captain on a long and perilous voyage.
"What a position to leave you in--so young and so unprotected."
|