| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: and palpitating like that in the stoke-hold of a steamship.
The sun, small and contracted, swam molten overhead.
"I can't stand it," said McTeague at length. "I'll have to
stop and make some kinda shade."
The mule was crouched upon the ground, panting rapidly,
with half-closed eyes. The dentist removed the saddle, and
unrolling his blanket, propped it up as best he could
between him and the sun. As he stooped down to crawl
beneath it, his palm touched the ground. He snatched it
away with a cry of pain. The surface alkali was oven-hot;
he was obliged to scoop out a trench in it before he dared
McTeague |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: Hail and farewell! I must arise,
Leave here the fatted cattle,
And paint on foreign lands and skies
My Odyssey of battle.
The untented Kosmos my abode,
I pass, a wilful stranger:
My mistress still the open road
And the bright eyes of danger.
Come ill or well, the cross, the crown,
The rainbow or the thunder,
I fling my soul and body down
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: losing her wings and drooping in her flight at last settles on the solid
ground--there, finding a home, she receives an earthly frame which appears
to be self-moved, but is really moved by her power; and this composition of
soul and body is called a living and mortal creature. For immortal no such
union can be reasonably believed to be; although fancy, not having seen nor
surely known the nature of God, may imagine an immortal creature having
both a body and also a soul which are united throughout all time. Let
that, however, be as God wills, and be spoken of acceptably to him. And
now let us ask the reason why the soul loses her wings!
The wing is the corporeal element which is most akin to the divine, and
which by nature tends to soar aloft and carry that which gravitates
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