| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveler asked
Wordsworth's servant to show him her master's study, she
answered, "Here is his library, but his study is out of doors."
Living much out of doors, in the sun and wind, will no doubt
produce a certain roughness of character--will cause a thicker
cuticle to grow over some of the finer qualities of our nature,
as on the face and hands, or as severe manual labor robs the
hands of some of their delicacy of touch. So staying in the
house, on the other hand, may produce a softness and smoothness,
not to say thinness of skin, accompanied by an increased
sensibility to certain impressions. Perhaps we should be more
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: the poet's glowing eyes.
"Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said.
The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been
reading.
"You have read these poems," said he. "You know me, then,--for I
wrote them."
Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the
poet's features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then
back, with an uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance
fell; he shook his head, and sighed.
"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet.
The Snow Image |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: had given of it, being comfortable, but old-fashioned, The bed
was of the massive form used in the end of the seventeenth
century, and the curtains of faded silk, heavily trimmed with
tarnished gold. But then the sheets, pillows, and blankets
looked delightful to the campaigner, when he thought of his
"mansion, the cask." There was an air of gloom in the tapestry
hangings, which, with their worn-out graces, curtained the walls
of the little chamber, and gently undulated as the autumnal
breeze found its way through the ancient lattice window, which
pattered and whistled as the air gained entrance. The toilet,
too, with its mirror, turbaned after the manner of the beginning
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