| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: nose. Around him in the morning sunlight fed the sheep; behind him lay his
master polishing his machine. He found much comfort in handling it that
morning. A dozen philosophical essays, or angelically atuned songs for the
consolation of the bereaved, could never have been to him what that little
sheep-shearing machine was that day.
After struggling to see the unseeable, growing drunk with the endeavour to
span the infinite, and writhing before the inscrutable mystery, it is a
renovating relief to turn to some simple, feelable, weighable substance; to
something which has a smell and a colour, which may be handled and turned
over this way and that. Whether there be or be not a hereafter, whether
there be any use in calling aloud to the Unseen power, whether there be an
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: he was not so much unable to give himself an answer as unable to
face the answer.
In the depth of his soul he felt that the devil had substituted
an activity for men in place of his former activity for God. He
felt this because, just as it had formerly been hard for him to
be torn from his solitude so now that solitude itself was hard
for him. He was oppressed and wearied by visitors, but at the
bottom of his heart he was glad of their presence and glad of the
praise they heaped upon him.
There was a time when he decided to go away and hide. He even
planned all that was necessary for that purpose. He prepared for
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Richard III by William Shakespeare: Exit CATESBY
I must be married to my brother's daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.
Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
Re-enter PAGE, with TYRREL
Is thy name Tyrrel?
TYRREL. James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.
KING RICHARD. Art thou, indeed?
Richard III |
