| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: secondly, people do not fall into a rage with you when you refuse to
be their creditor.
You may stay your envy (interposed Niceratus), I shall presently
present myself to borrow of him this same key of his to
independence.[69] Trained as I am to cast up figures by my master
Homer--
Seven tripods, which ne'er felt the fire, and of gold ten talents
And burnished braziers twenty, and horses twelve--[70]
by weight and measure duly reckoned,[71] I cannot stay my craving for
enormous wealth. And that's the reason certain people, I daresay,
imagine I am inordinately fond of riches.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: spring--had alighted on the fence-post and had sung his plaintive song. A few
more days and the blossoms were out mingling their pink and white with the
green; the red-bud. the Hawthorne, and the dog-wood were in bloom, checkering
the hillsides.
"Bessie, spring is here," said Col. Zane, as he stood in the doorway. "The air
is fresh, the sun shines warm, the birds are singing; it makes me feel good."
"Yes, it is pleasant to have spring with us again," answered his wife. "I
think, though, that in winter I am happier. In summer I am always worried. I
am afraid for the children to be out of my sight, and when you are away on a
hunt I am distraught until you are home safe."
"Well, if the redskins let us alone this summer it will be something new," he
Betty Zane |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: have preyed upon my heart, and fixed it upon a passion which laid
hold on me in spite of myself, until the hour struck when I might
go to my mistress. Then, and by this I knew the violence of my
love, I left the table without a moment's hesitation, whether I
was winning or losing, pitying those whom I left behind because
they would not, like me, find their real happiness in leaving it.
For the most of them, gambling was a necessity; for me, it was a
remedy. Free of Marguerite, I should have been free of gambling.
Thus, in the midst of all that, I preserved a considerable amount
of self-possession; I lost only what I was able to pay, and
gained only what I should have been able to lose.
Camille |
