| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: considered inferior to my fellows, although there were among them some who
were already marked out to fill the places of our instructors. And, in
fine, our age appeared to me as flourishing, and as fertile in powerful
minds as any preceding one. I was thus led to take the liberty of judging
of all other men by myself, and of concluding that there was no science in
existence that was of such a nature as I had previously been given to believe.
I still continued, however, to hold in esteem the studies of the schools.
I was aware that the languages taught in them are necessary to the
understanding of the writings of the ancients; that the grace of fable
stirs the mind; that the memorable deeds of history elevate it; and, if
read with discretion, aid in forming the judgment; that the perusal of all
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: containing the extremes of exultation, full of careless joy and of
an invincible sadness - like a day-dream. The sense of all this
having been gone through as if in one great rush of imagination is
all the stronger in the distance of time, because it had something
of that quality even then: of fate unprovoked, of events that
didn't cast any shadow before.
Not that those events were in the least extraordinary. They were,
in truth, commonplace. What to my backward glance seems startling
and a little awful is their punctualness and inevitability. Mills
was punctual. Exactly at a quarter to twelve he appeared under the
lofty portal of the Hotel de Louvre, with his fresh face, his ill-
The Arrow of Gold |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: "Who?" asked Neb.
"Our good genius, Neb, our good genius, who will shut his mouth for him,
if he so much as pretends to open it!"
As may be seen, the sailor's confidence in the tutelary deity of his
island was absolute, and, certainly, the occult power, manifested until now
in so many inexplicable ways, appeared to be unlimited; but also it knew
how to escape the colonists' most minute researches, for, in spite of all
their efforts, in spite of the more than zeal,--the obstinacy,--with which
they carried on their exploration, the retreat of the mysterious being
could not be discovered.
From the 19th to the 20th of February the circle of investigation was
The Mysterious Island |
