| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: York, and started home on the ferry-boat, and there was a collision
and he got drowned. He is of a class that think all heaven goes
wild with joy when a particularly hard lot like him is saved; they
think all heaven turns out hosannahing to welcome them; they think
there isn't anything talked about in the realms of the blest but
their case, for that day. This barkeeper thinks there hasn't been
such another stir here in years, as his coming is going to raise. -
And I've always noticed this peculiarity about a dead barkeeper -
he not only expects all hands to turn out when he arrives, but he
expects to be received with a torchlight procession."
"I reckon he is disappointed, then."
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: I came to the Royal Institution, and sent up my card, with a copy of
the paper which Knoblauch and myself had just completed. He came
down and conversed with me for half an hour. I could not fail to
remark the wonderful play of intellect and kindly feeling exhibited
by his countenance. When he was in good health the question of his
age would never occur to you. In the light and laughter of his eyes
you never thought of his grey hairs. He was then on the point of
publishing one of his papers on Magnecrystallic action, and he had
time to refer in a flattering Note to the memoir I placed in his
hands. I returned to Germany, worked there for nearly another year,
and in June, 1851, came back finally from Berlin to England. Then,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: has succeeded; when we have stood by, and another has stepped in;
when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions, and a plain,
uncouth peasant steps into the battle, under the eyes of God, and
succours the afflicted, and consoles the dying, and is himself
afflicted in his turn, and dies upon the field of honour - the
battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy irritation has
suggested. It is a lost battle, and lost for ever. One thing
remained to you in your defeat - some rags of common honour; and
these you have made haste to cast away.
Common honour; not the honour of having done anything right, but
the honour of not having done aught conspicuously foul; the honour
|
