| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: affairs." He locked up his house--though not a native in the
Providence would wittingly have touched "Estreekin Sahib's" gear
for the world--and went down to see a friend of his, an old dyer,
at Tarn Taran.
Here all trace of him was lost, until a sais met me on the Simla
Mall with this extraordinary note:
"Dear old man,
Please give bearer a box of cheroots--Supers, No. I, for
preference. They are freshest at the Club. I'll repay when I
reappear; but at present I'm out of Society.
Yours,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: rectilinear progression; the perpetually varied begets uniformity.
Now is this logarithmic spiral, with its curious properties, merely
a conception of the geometers, combining number and extent, at
will, so as to imagine a tenebrous abyss wherein to practise their
analytical methods afterwards? Is it a mere dream in the night of
the intricate, an abstract riddle flung out for our understanding
to browse upon?
No, it is a reality in the service of life, a method of
construction frequently employed in animal architecture. The
Mollusc, in particular, never rolls the winding ramp of the shell
without reference to the scientific curve. The first-born of the
The Life of the Spider |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: keep sober always; and there are infinite degrees of drunkenness. I
believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so
noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a
cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how
low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be
intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and
Rome, and will destroy England and America. Of all ebriosity, who
does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? I have
found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long
continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.
But to tell the truth, I find myself at present somewhat less
Walden |
