| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: we write in groups, or phrases, as I prefer to call them, for
the prose phrase is greatly longer and is much more
nonchalantly uttered than the group in verse; so that not
only is there a greater interval of continuous sound between
the pauses, but, for that very reason, word is linked more
readily to word by a more summary enunciation. Still, the
phrase is the strict analogue of the group, and successive
phrases, like successive groups, must differ openly in length
and rhythm. The rule of scansion in verse is to suggest no
measure but the one in hand; in prose, to suggest no measure
at all. Prose must be rhythmical, and it may be as much so
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: did not hide his disbelief.
"Why do you question me, Bickley, you who believe nothing of
what I tell you, and therefore make wrath? Still I will say this,
that what I caused to happen I can cause once more--only once, I
think--as perchance you shall learn before all is done. Now,
since you do not believe, I will tell you no more of our
mysteries, no, not whence this light comes nor what are the
properties of the Water of Life, both of which you long to know,
nor how to preserve the vital spark of Being in the grave of
dreamless sleep, like a live jewel in a casket of dead stone, nor
aught else. As to these matters, Daughter, I bid you also to be
When the World Shook |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a
leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and
March 399 B.C.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7
The Hellenica 7
Anabasis |
