| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: an appreciable time sat tongue-tied. Otto was indistinctly
conscious of a peril in the silence, but could find no words to
utter. Suddenly the Countess seemed to awake. 'As for your wife -
' she began in a clear and steady voice.
The word recalled Otto, with a shudder, from his trance. 'I will
hear nothing against my wife,' he cried wildly; and then, recovering
himself and in a kindlier tone, 'I will tell you my one secret,' he
added. 'I love my wife.'
'You should have let me finish,' she returned, smiling. 'Do you
suppose I did not mention her on purpose? You know you had lost
your head. Well, so had I. Come now, do not be abashed by words,'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: philosophy from our conversations than I had
gotten from our books." (Quoted by Aylmer
Maude in his "Life of Tolstoy.")
As frequently happens in the lives of reformers,
Tolstoy found himself more often in affinity with
strangers than with his own kin. The estrange-
ment of his ideals from those of his wife neces-
sarily affected their conjugal relations, and the
decline of mutual sympathy inevitably induced
physical alienation. The stress of mental anguish
arising from these conditions found vent in pages
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: diffusion of happiness.
Thus passed twenty months of the life of Rasselas. He busied
himself so intensely in visionary bustle that he forgot his real
solitude; and amidst hourly preparations for the various incidents
of human affairs, neglected to consider by what means he should
mingle with mankind.
One day, as he was sitting on a bank, he feigned to himself an
orphan virgin robbed of her little portion by a treacherous lover,
and crying after him for restitution. So strongly was the image
impressed upon his mind that he started up in the maid's defence,
and ran forward to seize the plunderer with all the eagerness of
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