| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: thousands. Slowly the beam moves up and down; deeply the judges appear
to ponder; at length one scale sinks, the other rises, breathed on by the
caprice of destiny, and all is decided.
[Exit.
Alva (advancing with his son). How did you find the town?
Ferdinand. All is again quiet. I rode as for pastime, from street to street.
Your well-distributed patrols hold Fear so tightly yoked, that she does not
venture even to whisper. The town resembles a plain when the lightning's
glare announces the impending storm: no bird, no beast is to be seen, that
is not stealing to a place of shelter.
Alva. Has nothing further occurred?
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: Job 13: 3 Notwithstanding I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
Job 13: 4 But ye are plasterers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Job 13: 5 Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it would be your wisdom.
Job 13: 6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
Job 13: 7 Will ye speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for Him?
Job 13: 8 Will ye show Him favour? Will ye contend for God?
Job 13: 9 Would it be good that He should search you out? Or as one mocketh a man, will ye mock Him?
Job 13: 10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly show favour.
Job 13: 11 Shall not His majesty terrify you, and His dread fall upon you?
Job 13: 12 Your memorials shall be like unto ashes, your eminences to eminences of clay.
Job 13: 13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: He swayed forward heavily.
The girl, with her hands raised before her pale
eyes, was threading her needle. He glanced at her,
and his mighty trunk overshadowed the table,
bringing nearer to us the breadth of his shoulders,
the thickness of his neck, and that incongruous, an-
chorite head, burnt in the desert, hollowed and lean
as if by excesses of vigils and fasting. His beard
flowed imposingly downwards, out of sight, be-
tween the two brown hands gripping the edge of
the table, and his persistent glance made sombre by
Falk |
