| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: decorative piece; every volume having its assigned place, like a
little statue in its niche, and one of the earliest and strictest
lessons to the children of the house being how to turn the pages of
their own literary possessions lightly and deliberately, with no
chance of tearing or dog's ears.
That is my notion of the founding of Kings' Treasuries; and the
first lecture is intended to show somewhat the use and preciousness
of their treasures: but the two following ones have wider scope,
being written in the hope of awakening the youth of England, so far
as my poor words might have any power with them, to take some
thought of the purposes of the life into which they are entering,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: bolted into the forest, or were hiding on board Niclaus's prau,
which could be seen lying on the mud a hundred yards or so higher
up the creek, the fact is that they vanished; and Davidson did not
trouble his head about them. He lost no time in getting out of the
creek directly the Sissie floated. After steaming some twenty
miles clear of the coast, he (in his own words) 'committed the body
to the deep.' He did everything himself. He weighted her down
with a few fire-bars, he read the service, he lifted the plank, he
was the only mourner. And while he was rendering these last
services to the dead, the desolation of that life and the atrocious
wretchedness of its end cried aloud to his compassion, whispered to
Within the Tides |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: thought, nor room for delay; and I slid down the side of the
hollow on the instant, and the moment my feet touched the bottom
sprang to the door of the little hut, whence the light issued. A
stone turned under my feet in my rush, and I fell on my knees on
the threshold; but the fall only brought my face to a level with
the face of the man who lay inside on a bed of fern. He had been
reading. Startled by the sound I made, he dropped his book, and
in a flash stretched out his hand for a weapon. But the muzzle
of my pistol covered him, he was not in a posture from which he
could spring, and at a sharp word from me he dropped his hand;
the tigerish glare which flickered for an instant in his eyes
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