| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: had, like all the rest, to be shut up as tight as a jug.
But Jacob Stuck was not satisfied with that; not he. He was for
seeing the princess, and he was bound he would do so. So he bored
a hole through the door, and when the princess came riding by he
peeped out at her.
Jacob Stuck thought he had never seen anyone so beautiful in all
his life. It was like the sunlight shining in his eyes, and he
almost sneezed. Her cheeks were like milk and rose-leaves, and
her hair like fine threads of gold. She sat in a golden coach
with a golden crown upon her head, and Jacob Stuck stood looking
and looking until his heart melted within him like wax in the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: stone round his waist. He crept wearily down the ladder, and
disappeared into the sea. A few bubbles rose where he sank. Some
of the other slaves peered curiously over the side. At the prow of
the galley sat a shark-charmer, beating monotonously upon a drum.
After some time the diver rose up out of the water, and clung
panting to the ladder with a pearl in his right hand. The negroes
seized it from him, and thrust him back. The slaves fell asleep
over their oars.
Again and again he came up, and each time that he did so he brought
with him a beautiful pearl. The master of the galley weighed them,
and put them into a little bag of green leather.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: I thought that all my feelings had been dulled
into complete indifference. But I found it as try-
ing as ever to be on deck. The impenetrable black-
ness beset the ship so close that it seemed that by
thrusting one's hand over the side one could touch
some unearthly substance. There was in it an
effect of inconceivable terror and of inexpressible
mystery. The few stars overhead shed a dim light
upon the ship alone, with no gleams of any kind
upon the water, in detached shafts piercing an at-
mosphere which had turned to soot. It was some-
The Shadow Line |
