| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: frontiersmen.
These men turned out to be Captain Williamson's force, which had been out on
an expedition after a marauding tribe of Chippewas. This last named tribe had
recently harried the remote settlers, and committed depredations on the
outskirts of the white settlements eastward. The company was composed of men
who had served in the garrison at Fort Pitt, and hunters and backwoodsmen from
Yellow Creek and Fort Henry. The captain himself was a typical borderman,
rough and bluff, hardened by long years of border life, and, like most
pioneers, having no more use for an Indian than for a snake. He had led his
party after the marauders, and surprised and slaughtered nearly all of them.
Returning eastward he had passed through Goshocking, where he learned of the
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: discovery, though I dare say I shall have hard work to do without
it. But meanwhile, just to hasten that difficult birth, can't you
give a fellow a clue?" I felt much more at my ease.
"My whole lucid effort gives him the clue - every page and line and
letter. The thing's as concrete there as a bird in a cage, a bait
on a hook, a piece of cheese in a mouse-trap. It's stuck into
every volume as your foot is stuck into your shoe. It governs
every line, it chooses every word, it dots every i, it places every
comma."
I scratched my head. "Is it something in the style or something in
the thought? An element of form or an element of feeling?"
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: has brought them to her own mind, and woe betides the Trojans."
The dream went when it had heard its message, and soon reached
the ships of the Achaeans. It sought Agamemnon son of Atreus and
found him in his tent, wrapped in a profound slumber. It hovered
over his head in the likeness of Nestor, son of Neleus, whom
Agamemnon honoured above all his councillors, and said:--
"You are sleeping, son of Atreus; one who has the welfare of his
host and so much other care upon his shoulders should dock his
sleep. Hear me at once, for I come as a messenger from Jove, who,
though he be not near, yet takes thought for you and pities you.
He bids you get the Achaeans instantly under arms, for you shall
The Iliad |
