| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: I said, "What has it for all its labour? I see nothing return to it."
Then God touched my eyes, and I saw stretched out beneath us the plains of
Heaven and Hell, and all that was within them.
God said, "From that lone height on which he stands, all things are open.
To him is clear the shining in the garden, he sees the flower break forth
and the streams sparkle; no shout is raised upon the mountain-side but his
ear may hear it. He sees the crown grow and the light shoot from it. All
Hell is open to him. He sees the paths mount upwards. To him, Hell is the
seed ground from which Heaven springs. He sees the sap ascending."
And I saw the figure bend over its work, and the light from its face fell
upon it.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: that many would hold to be incredible.
So the days passed, and I practised, every evening finding me a little
better at this terribly difficult sport. For always I learned more as
to the exact capacities of my rifle and the allowance that must be made
according to the speed of the bird, its distance, and the complications
of the wind and of the light. During those days, also, I recovered so
rapidly that at the end of them I was almost in my normal condition, and
could walk well with the aid of a single stick.
At length the eventful Thursday came, and about midday--for I lay in bed
late that morning and did not shoot--I drove, or, rather, was driven, in
a Cape cart with two horses to the place known as Groote Kloof or Great
Marie |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: for my company no longer plied with their hands the
tapering oars. But I paced the ship and cheered on my men,
as I stood by each one and spake smooth words:
'"Friends, forasmuch as in sorrow we are not all unlearned,
truly this is no greater woe that is upon us, {*} than when
the Cyclops penned us by main might in his hollow cave; yet
even thence we made escape by my manfulness, even by my
counsel and my wit, and some day I think that this
adventure too we shall remember. Come now, therefore, let
us all give ear to do according to my word. Do ye smite the
deep surf of the sea with your oars, as ye sit on the
The Odyssey |
