| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: shrugged his shoulders, muttered that I was mad or bewitched, and
followed doggedly in my tracks.
"We soon reached the kloof, which was about three hundred yards in
length and but sparsely wooded, and then the real fun began. There
might be a lion behind every bush--there certainly were four lions
somewhere; the delicate question was, where. I peeped and poked and
looked in every possible direction, with my heart in my mouth, and was
at last rewarded by catching a glimpse of something yellow moving behind
a bush. At the same moment, from another bush opposite me out burst one
of the cubs and galloped back towards the burnt pan. I whipped round
and let drive a snap shot that tipped him head over heels, breaking his
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: chain, that you are beasts, Petchenyegs, and you believe it; they
punch you in the neck, you kiss their hands; some animal in a
sable-lined coat robs you and then tips you fifteen kopecks and
you: 'Let me kiss your hand, sir.' You are pariahs, pitiful
people. . . . I am a different sort. My eyes are open, I see it
all as clearly as a hawk or an eagle when it floats over the
earth, and I understand it all. I am a living protest. I see
irresponsible tyranny -- I protest. I see cant and hypocrisy -- I
protest. I see swine triumphant -- I protest. And I cannot be
suppressed, no Spanish Inquisition can make me hold my tongue.
No. . . . Cut out my tongue and I would protest in dumb show;
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: to fishing-eagles, storks, and pelicans; these birds after an interval of
many hours, either rejected the seeds in pellets or passed them in their
excrement; and several of these seeds retained their power of germination.
Certain seeds, however, were always killed by this process.
Although the beaks and feet of birds are generally quite clean, I can show
that earth sometimes adheres to them: in one instance I removed twenty-two
grains of dry argillaceous earth from one foot of a partridge, and in this
earth there was a pebble quite as large as the seed of a vetch. Thus seeds
might occasionally be transported to great distances; for many facts could
be given showing that soil almost everywhere is charged with seeds.
Reflect for a moment on the millions of quails which annually cross the
On the Origin of Species |
