| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: though unconsciously, steering like pilots by certain well-known
beacons and headlands, and if we go beyond our usual course we still
carry in our minds the bearing of some neighboring cape; and not
till we are completely lost, or turned round -- for a man needs only
to be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost
-- do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of nature. Every
man has to learn the points of compass again as often as be awakes,
whether from sleep or any abstraction. Not till we are lost, in
other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find
ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our
relations.
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: state and I don't know quite how to give you an idea of what it was
like, except by saying that it sounded like a peal of bells a thousand
miles off. When he had satisfied himself that the flowers were in
tune, he seated himself on the dead mouse (he never seemed really
comfortable anywhere else), and, looking up at me with a merry twinkle
in his eyes, he began. By the way, the tune was rather a curious one,
and you might like to try it for yourself, so here are the notes.
[Image...Music for hare-bells]
"Rise, oh, rise! The daylight dies:
The owls are hooting, ting, ting, ting!
Wake, oh, wake! Beside the lake
Sylvie and Bruno |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: miscreants and Christians.
The governor, unwilling to make a breach, or to have any cause of
war alleged to be given by him, the Czar having strictly charged
him to treat the conquered country with gentleness, gave them all
the good words he could. At last he told them there was a caravan
gone towards Russia that morning, and perhaps it was some of them
who had done them this injury; and that if they would be satisfied
with that, he would send after them to inquire into it. This
seemed to appease them a little; and accordingly the governor sent
after us, and gave us a particular account how the thing was;
intimating withal, that if any in our caravan had done it they
Robinson Crusoe |
