| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: are not really simple, but owe their sensible differences to the
various groupings of an ultimate atom which is alike for all.
Relatively to our powers of comprehension the atom endures
eternally; that is, it retains forever unalterable its definite
mass and its definite rate of vibration. Now this is just what a
vortex-ring would do in an incompressible frictionless fluid.
Thus the startling question is suggested, Why may not the
ultimate atoms of matter be vortex-rings forever existing in such
a frictionless fluid filling the whole of space? Such a
hypothesis is not less brilliant than Huyghens's conjectural
identification of light with undulatory motion; and it is
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: alone several times. You wear your--"
I got up and climbed on to the swing. The air was sweet and cool, rushing
past my body. Above, white clouds trailed delicately through the blue sky.
From the pine forest streamed a wild perfume, the branches swayed together,
rhythmically, sonorously. I felt so light and free and happy--so childish!
I wanted to poke my tongue out at the circle on the grass, who, drawing
close together, were whispering meaningly.
"Perhaps you do not know," cried a voice from one of the cells, "to swing
is very upsetting for the stomach? A friend of mine could keep nothing
down for three weeks after exciting herself so."
I went to the bath shelter and was hosed.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: Bruyn, to the great astonishment of the people of Vouvrillons,
returned from the Crusades laden with crowns and precious stones;
rather differently from some who, rich when they set out, came back
heavy with leprosy, but light with gold. On his return from Tunis, our
Lord, King Philippe, made him a Count, and appointed him his seneschal
in our country and that of Poitou. There he was greatly beloved and
properly thought well of, since over and above his good qualities he
founded the Church of the Carmes-Deschaulx, in the parish of
Egrignolles, as the peace-offering to Heaven for the follies of his
youth. Thus was he cardinally consigned to the good graces of the
Church and of God. From a wicked youth and reckless man, he became a
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
