| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: of beautifully crystallized, white salt. The lake is quite
circular, and is fringed with a border of bright green succulent
plants; the almost precipitous walls of the crater are clothed
with wood, so that the scene was altogether both picturesque
and curious. A few years since, the sailors belonging to a
sealing-vessel murdered their captain in this quiet spot; and
we saw his skull lying among the bushes.
During the greater part of our stay of a week, the sky
was cloudless, and if the trade-wind failed for an hour, the
heat became very oppressive. On two days, the thermometer
within the tent stood for some hours at 93 degs.; but in the open
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: v. 21. In equal balance.] "My pleasure was as great in
complying
with her will as in beholding her countenance."
v. 24. Of that lov'd monarch.] Saturn. Compare Hell, Canto
XIV. 91.
v. 56. What forbade the smile.] "Because it would have overcome
thee."
v. 61. There aloft.] Where the other souls were.
v. 97. A stony ridge.] The Apennine.
v. 112. Pietro Damiano.] "S. Pietro Damiano obtained a great
and well-merited reputation, by the pains he took to correct the
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: and advertises a new issue of No. XVI. with all objectionable
matter omitted. This, with pleasing euphemism, he terms in a
later advertisement, 'a new and improved edition.' This was
the only remarkable adventure of MR. TATLER'S brief
existence; unless we consider as such a silly Chaldee
manuscript in imitation of BLACKWOOD, and a letter of reproof
from a divinity student on the impiety of the same dull
effusion. He laments the near approach of his end in
pathetic terms. 'How shall we summon up sufficient courage,'
says he, 'to look for the last time on our beloved little
devil and his inestimable proof-sheet? How shall we be able
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