| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: I was blamed by a common friend for asking you to give me a
testimonial; in the circumstances he thought it was indelicate.
Lest, by some calamity, you should ever have felt the same way, I
must say in two words how the matter appeared to me. That silly
story of the election altered in no tittle the value of your
testimony: so much for that. On the other hand, it led me to take
quite a particular pleasure in asking you to give it; and so much
for the other. I trust, even if you cannot share it, you will
understand my view.
I am in treaty with Bentley for a life of Hazlitt; I hope it will
not fall through, as I love the subject, and appear to have found a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: of men and angels; for a while together by the fire, happens
more frequently in marriage than the presence of a
distinguished foreigner to dinner. That people should laugh
over the same sort of jests, and have many a story of "grouse
in the gun-room," many an old joke between them which time
cannot wither nor custom stale, is a better preparation for
life, by your leave, than many other things higher and better
sounding in the world's ears. You could read Kant by
yourself, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with some
one else. You can forgive people who do not follow you
through a philosophical disquisition; but to find your wife
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: "'We were having some music.'
"'I did not expect--,' she began at the same time, chiming in
with the tone of the other.
"But neither he nor she finished their remarks. The same rage
that I had felt the previous week took possession of me. I felt
the need of giving free course to my violence and 'the joy of
wrath.'
"No, they did not finish. That other thing was going to begin,
of which he was afraid, and was going to annihilate what they
wanted to say. I threw myself upon her, still hiding the dagger,
that he might not prevent me from striking where I desired, in
The Kreutzer Sonata |
