| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: He tumbled in, rolled over on his back, and flung one arm across his eyes.
And then, with his face nearly hidden, he must have looked exactly as I used
to look in that bed. I gazed upon my other self for a while before drawing
across carefully the two green serge curtains which ran on a brass rod.
I thought for a moment of pinning them together for greater safety,
but I sat down on the couch, and once there I felt unwilling to rise
and hunt for a pin. I would do it in a moment. I was extremely tired,
in a peculiarly intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness,
by the effort of whispering and the general secrecy of this excitement.
It was three o'clock by now and I had been on my feet since nine,
but I was not sleepy; I could not have gone to sleep. I sat there,
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: Theban prison, guarding the summit, to the number of about one hundred
and fifty. These, with the exception of one or two who escaped, were
cut down by the peltasts, and Cleombrotus descended in person upon
Plataeae, which was still friendly to Sparta. Presently he reached
Thespiae, and that was the base for an advance upon Cynoscephalae,
where he encamped on Theban territory. Here he halted sixteen days,
and then again fell back upon Thespiae. At this latter place he now
left Sphodrias as governor, with a third portion of each of the
contingents of the allies, handing over to him all the moneys he had
brought with him from home, with directions to supplement his force
with a contingent of mercenaries.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: day's gale breaking on the beach with monotonous
and solemn vibrations, as if all the earth had been
a tolling bell.
"And then, why, a ship's a ship. You love her
and leave her; and a voyage isn't a marriage." He
quoted the sailor's saying lightly.
"It is not a marriage," she whispered.
"I never took a false name, and I've never yet
told a lie to a woman. What lie? Why, THE lie--.
Take me or leave me, I say: and if you take me,
then it is . . ." He hummed a snatch very low,
To-morrow |
