| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: wildwood covers the virgin mould,--and the same soil is good for
men and for trees. A man's health requires as many acres of
meadow to his prospect as his farm does loads of muck. There are
the strong meats on which he feeds. A town is saved, not more by
the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that
surround it. A township where one primitive forest waves above
while another primitive forest rots below--such a town is fitted
to raise not only corn and potatoes, but poets and philosophers
for the coming ages. In such a soil grew Homer and Confucius and
the rest, and out of such a wilderness comes the Reformer eating
locusts and wild honey.
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: of Athens fairly in his grip at Piraeus, he had suffered it to slip
through his fingers and escape. Besides this,[25] he failed to present
himself at the trial, and a sentence of death was passed upon him. He
escaped to Tegea and there died of an illness whilst still in exile.
Thus closes the chapter of events enacted on the soil of Hellas. To
return to Asia and Agesilaus.
[25] Or, add, "as a further gravamen."
BOOK IV
I
B.C. 395. With the fall of the year Agesilaus reached Phrygia--the
Phrygia of Pharnabazus--and proceeded to burn and harry the district.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: Lower the sea gulls soar,
And the waves that rose in resistless yearning
Are broken forevermore.
After Love
There is no magic any more,
We meet as other people do,
You work no miracle for me
Nor I for you.
You were the wind and I the sea --
There is no splendor any more,
I have grown listless as the pool
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