| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: headlands, against whose bases burst the unbroken seas. To
windward a short distance, seen only between the snow-squalls, was
a low rocky reef. It was this that inadequately protected us from
the whole Yellow Sea that thundered in upon us.
The Japanese crawled under a communal rice mat and went to sleep.
I joined them, and for several hours we dozed fitfully. Then a
sea deluged us out with icy water, and we found several inches of
snow on top the mat. The reef to windward was disappearing under
the rising tide, and moment by moment the seas broke more strongly
over the rocks. The fishermen studied the shore anxiously. So
did I, and with a sailor's eye, though I could see little chance
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: through the heather in this single day? It will sink into the
ground, you know. And then what will become of it? Madam How
will use it as an underground spade, just as she uses the rain (at
least, when it rains too hard, and therefore the rain runs off the
moor instead of sinking into it) as a spade above ground.
Now come to the edge of the glen, and I will show you the mist
that fell yesterday, perhaps, coming out of the ground again, and
hard at work.
You know of what an odd, and indeed of what a pretty form all
these glens are. How the flat moor ends suddenly in a steep
rounded bank, almost like the crest of a wave--ready like a wave-
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: "We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days,
(Seven days to the week I allow),
But a Snark, on the which we might lovingly gaze,
We have never beheld till now!
"Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
The five unmistakable marks
By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
The warranted genuine Snarks.
"Let us take them in order. The first is the taste,
Which is meager and hollow, but crisp:
Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,
The Hunting of the Snark |
