| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: of that goatherd of the mountains with a symbolic face. I looked
at her face. For immobility it might have been a carving. I
wished I knew how to deal with that embodied mystery, to influence
it, to manage it. Oh, how I longed for the gift of authority! In
addition, since I had become completely sane, all my scruples
against laying hold of her had returned. I felt shy and
embarrassed. My eyes were fixed on the bronze handle of the
fencing-room door as if it were something alive. I braced myself
up against the moment when it would move. This was what was going
to happen next. It would move very gently. My heart began to
thump. But I was prepared to keep myself as still as death and I
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: yet saw plainly the hall and all that it contained, he could see
neither himself nor any other person of flesh.
After waiting a considerable time for his esquire to reappear Prince
Marvel became impatient.
"What have you done with Nerle?" he asked of the Red Rogue.
"Nothing," was the reply. "I have been here, plainly within your
sight, every moment."
"Let me go and find him!" exclaimed King Terribus, and rushed into the
castle before the prince could reply. But Terribus also encountered
the enchanted mirror, and the prince waited in vain for his return.
Then Wul-Takim volunteered to go in search of the others, and drew his
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: a life which was nothing in every respect but a curse--that I could
not understand. I thought it was very likely some obscure influence
of common forms of speech, some traditional or inherited feeling--a
vague notion that suicide is a legal crime; words of old moralists
and preachers which remain in the air and help to form all the
authorized moral conventions. Yes, I was surprised at her remorse.
But lowering her glance unexpectedly till her dark eye-lashes seemed
to rest against her white cheeks she presented a perfectly demure
aspect. It was so attractive that I could not help a faint smile.
That Flora de Barral should ever, in any aspect, have the power to
evoke a smile was the very last thing I should have believed. She
Chance |
