| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: being romantic in their usefulness.
In their way they are as romantic as the river they serve is unlike
all the other commercial streams of the world. The cosiness of the
St. Katherine's Dock, the old-world air of the London Docks, remain
impressed upon the memory. The docks down the river, abreast of
Woolwich, are imposing by their proportions and the vast scale of
the ugliness that forms their surroundings - ugliness so
picturesque as to become a delight to the eye. When one talks of
the Thames docks, "beauty" is a vain word, but romance has lived
too long upon this river not to have thrown a mantle of glamour
upon its banks.
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: Whose hands so ready were to harm and scath,
And brandished bright swords on every side;
Now hushed and still attend what Godfrey saith,
With shame and fear their bashful looks they hide,
And Argillan they let in chains be bound,
Although their weapons him environed round.
LXXXIII
So when a lion shakes his dreadful mane,
And beats his tail with courage proud and wroth,
If his commander come, who first took pain
To tame his youth, his lofty crest down goeth,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: permanent, we may ask when and upon what conditions should they be
dissolved. It would be futile to retain the name when the reality has
ceased to be. That two friends should part company whenever the relation
between them begins to drag may be better for both of them. But then
arises the consideration, how should these friends in youth or friends of
the past regard or be regarded by one another? They are parted, but there
still remain duties mutually owing by them. They will not admit the world
to share in their difference any more than in their friendship; the memory
of an old attachment, like the memory of the dead, has a kind of sacredness
for them on which they will not allow others to intrude. Neither, if they
were ever worthy to bear the name of friends, will either of them entertain
Lysis |
