| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: kicked him out of a big steam-ship company for disgraceful conduct;
nothing to affect his certificate, you understand; and he had gone
down quite easily. Liked it, I expect. Anything's better than
work. Lived on the widow lady who kept that boarding-house."
"That's almost incredible," I ventured to interrupt. "A man with a
master's certificate, do you mean?"
"I do; I've known them 'bus cads," he growled, contemptuously.
"Yes. Swing on the tail-board by the strap and yell, 'tuppence all
the way.' Through drink. But this Stafford was of another kind.
Hell's full of such Staffords; Cloete would make fun of him, and
then there would be a nasty gleam in the fellow's half-shut eye.
Within the Tides |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Paradise Lost by John Milton: Only Omniscient, hath suppressed in night;
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven:
Enough is left besides to search and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels, than that star the stars among,)
Paradise Lost |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: all the world could be such joy to me as that!"
Lord George laughed. "A little matter pleases thee hugely," said
he; "but as to being ungainly, who so sayeth that of thee belieth
thee, Myles; thou art not ungainly, sirrah. But that is not to
the point. I have chosen thee for my equerry to- day; so make
thou haste and don thine armor, and then come hither again, and
Hollingwood will fit thee with a wreathed bascinet I have within,
and a juppon embroidered with my arms and colors."
When Myles had made his bow and left his patron, he flew across
the quadrangle, and burst into the armory upon Gascoyne, whom he
found still lingering there, chatting with one or two of the
Men of Iron |
