| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: chewing their cigars somewhat wildly when Mrs. Brandeis
finished with them. Sometimes she did not accompany her
mother, but lay in bed, deliciously, until the middle of the
morning, then dressed, and chatted with the obliging Irish
chamber maid, and read until her mother came for her at
noon.
Everything she did was a delightful adventure; everything
she saw had the tang of novelty. Fanny Brandeis was to see
much that was beautiful and rare in her full lifetime, but
she never again, perhaps, got quite the thrill that those
ugly, dim, red-carpeted, gas-lighted hotel corridors gave
Fanny Herself |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: Phaeacia, thou didst comfort me with thy words, and thyself
didst lead me to their city. And now I beseech thee in thy
father's name to tell me: for I deem not that I am come to
clear-seen Ithaca, but I roam over some other land, and
methinks that thou speakest thus to mock me and beguile my
mind. Tell me whether in very deed I am come to mine own
dear country.'
Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, answered him: 'Yea,
such a thought as this is ever in thy breast. Wherefore I
may in no wise leave thee in thy grief, so courteous art
thou, so ready of wit and so prudent. Right gladly would
The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: the routines of his duties again in his study downstairs.
His chief task was to finish his two addresses for the
confirmation services of the day. He read over his notes, and
threw them aside and remained for a time thinking deeply. The
Greek tags at the end of Likeman's letter came into his thoughts;
they assumed a quality of peculiar relevance to this present
occasion. He repeated the words: "Epitelesei. Epiphausei."
He took his little Testament to verify them. After some slight
trouble he located the two texts. The first, from Philippians,
ran in the old version, "He that hath begun a good work in you
will perform it"; the second was expressed thus: "Christ shall
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