| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: caravan, and the mules were twice forty in number.
'We went from the country of the Tartars into the country of those
who curse the Moon. We saw the Gryphons guarding their gold on the
white rocks, and the scaled Dragons sleeping in their caves. As we
passed over the mountains we held our breath lest the snows might
fall on us, and each man tied a veil of gauze before his eyes. As
we passed through the valleys the Pygmies shot arrows at us from
the hollows of the trees, and at night-time we heard the wild men
beating on their drums. When we came to the Tower of Apes we set
fruits before them, and they did not harm us. When we came to the
Tower of Serpents we gave them warm milk in howls of brass, and
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for
thee beyond the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there!
"May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams;
may they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover
round you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves
distinctly, pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon a
sea-shore. Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the
diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the
beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who
have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom
and aspire to the regions of Light!
Seraphita |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: of government detestable to persons like ourselves--to us and to you;
the next is that the people of Athens could never be got to be
friendly to our friends and saviours, the Lacedaemonians. But on the
loyalty of the better classes the Lacedaemonians can count. And that
is our reason for establishing an oligarchical constitution with their
concurrence. That is why we do our best to rid us of every one whom we
perceive to be opposed to the oligarchy; and, in our opinion, if one
of ourselves should elect to undermine this constitution of ours, he
would deserve punishment. Do you not agree? And the case," he
continued, "is no imaginary one. The offender is here present--
Theramenes. And what we say of him is, that he is bent upon destroying
|
