| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: remainder of her life in endeavouring to her utmost to observe all
thy precepts. We beseech Thee likewise to compose her thoughts,
and preserve to her the use of her memory and reason during the
course of her sickness. Give her a true conception of the vanity,
folly, and insignificancy of all human things; and strengthen her
so as to beget in her a sincere love of Thee in the midst of her
sufferings. Accept and impute all her good deeds, and forgive her
all those offences against Thee, which she hath sincerely repented
of, or through the frailty of memory hath forgot. And now, O Lord,
we turn to Thee in behalf of ourselves, and the rest of her
sorrowful friends. Let not our grief afflict her mind, and thereby
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: there was at least as much mockery as courtesy.
``The wiser man thou,'' said John, with a peal
of laughter, in which his gay followers obsequiously
joined. ``But, daughter or wife, she should be
preferred according to her beauty and thy merits.
---Who sits above there?'' he continued, bending
his eye on the gallery. ``Saxon churls, lolling at
their lazy length!---out upon them!---let them sit
close, and make room for my prince of usurers and
his lovely daughter. I'll make the hinds know they
must share the high places of the synagogue with
Ivanhoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: products, the storage and conservation of countless food-stuffs, and the
care of the children of the race. All this labor is done for the
commonwealth -- no citizen of which is capable even of thinking about
"property," except as a res publica;-- and the sole object of the
commonwealth is the nurture and training of its young,-- nearly all of whom
are girls. The period of infancy is long: the children remain for a great
while, not only helpless, but shapeless, and withal so delicate that they
must be very carefully guarded against the least change of temperature.
Fortunately their nurses understand the laws of health: each thoroughly
knows all that she ought to know in regard to ventilation, disinfection,
drainage, moisture, and the danger of germs,-- germs being as visible,
Kwaidan |
