| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: have not yet arrived there, seems to me rather inopportune."
"I do not say that, wishing to draw back," replied Nicholl;
"but I repeat my question, and I ask, `How shall we return?'"
"I know nothing about it," answered Barbicane.
"And I," said Michel, "if I had known how to return, I would
never have started."
"There's an answer!" cried Nicholl.
"I quite approve of Michel's words," said Barbicane; "and add,
that the question has no real interest. Later, when we think it
is advisable to return, we will take counsel together. If the
Columbiad is not there, the projectile will be."
From the Earth to the Moon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: to and fro. There will be nothing nearly so old as Avebury in
it, but there will be something from almost every chapter
that comes after Stonehenge. Rome will be poorly represented,
but that may come the day after at Bath. And the next day too
I want to show you something of our old River Severn. We will
come right up to the present if we go through Bristol. There
we shall have a whiff of America, our new find, from which
the tobacco comes, and we shall be reminded of how we set
sail thither--was it yesterday or the day before? You will
understand at Bristol how it is that the energy has gone out
of this dreaming land--to Africa and America and the whole
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: On the one hand, he was fond of society, and dur-
ing his brief residence in St. Petersburg was never
so engrossed in authorship as to forego the pleas-
ure of a ball or evening entertainment. Little
wonder, when one looks back at the brilliant young
officer surrounded and petted by the great hos-
tesses of Russia. On the other hand, he was no
devotee at the literary altar. No patron of lit-
erature could claim him as his constant visitor;
no inner circle of men of letters monopolised his
idle hours. Afterwards, when he left the capital
The Forged Coupon |
