| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: children had finished their rather confused account of the Ambassador's
visit, gathered no doubt from general report, as they had not seen him
themselves. "From bad to worse! That is their destiny. I see it,
but I cannot alter it. The selfishness of a mean and crafty man--the
selfishness of an ambitious and silly woman--- the selfishness of a
spiteful and loveless child all tend one way, from bad to worse!
And you, my darlings, must suffer it awhile, I fear. Yet, when things
are at their worst, you can come to me. I can do but little as yet--"
Gathering up a handful of dust and scattering it in the air, he slowly
and solemnly pronounced some words that sounded like a charm,
the children looking on in awe-struck silence:--
Sylvie and Bruno |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: inducing a man to make any serious effort to obtain 50 pounds is
nothing to the difficulty of inducing him to make a serious effort to
keep alive. The moment he sees death approach, he gets into bed and
sends for a doctor. He knows very well at the back of his conscience
that he is rather a poor job and had better be remanufactured. He
knows that his death will make room for a birth; and he hopes that it
will be a birth of something that he aspired to be and fell short of.
He knows that it is through death and rebirth that this corruptible
shall become incorruptible, and this mortal put on immortality.
Practise as you will on his ignorance, his fears, and his imagination,
with bribes of paradises and threats of hells, there is only one
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: and energy; for having hated really capable men; for not having
lovingly chosen them from this noble generation; for having in all
cases preferred mediocrity.
"You have come to ask my support, but you are an atom in that decrepit
heap which is made hideous by self-interest, which trembles and
squirms, and, because it is so mean, tries to make France mean too. My
strong nature, my ideas, would work like poison in you; twice you have
tricked me, twice have I overthrown you. If we unite a third time, it
must be a very serious matter. I should kill myself if I allowed
myself to be duped; for I should be to blame, not you."
Then we heard the humblest entreaties, the most fervent adjuration,
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