| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: as great as in the above instance, piles of cinders, abounding
with minute globules of metallic copper, were purchased;
yet with these advantages, the mining associations, as is well
known, contrived to lose immense sums of money. The folly
of the greater number of the commissioners and shareholders
amounted to infatuation; -- a thousand pounds per annum
given in some cases to entertain the Chilian authorities;
libraries of well-bound geological books; miners brought out
for particular metals, as tin, which are not found in Chile;
contracts to supply the miners with milk, in parts where
there are no cows; machinery, where it could not possibly
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: timbers full of portent to those who could read the signs.
The driver's crew laboured desperately, hoisting the piles into the
carriage, tripping the heavy hammer, sending it aloft again, binding
feverishly the clumps of piles together by means of cables. Each
man worked with an eye over his shoulder, fearful of the power that
menaced him.
Two of the clumps had been placed and bound; a third was nearly
finished, when suddenly, with a crack and a roar the upper booms
gave way, projecting their logs upon the opening and the driver.
The half dozen members of the crew, caught utterly unaware in spite
of the half warning they had been receiving for an hour past, were
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: poet's features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then
back, with an uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance
fell; he shook his head, and sighed.
"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet.
"Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the
fulfilment of a prophecy; and, when I read these poems, I hoped
that it might be fulfilled in you."
"You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me
the likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed,
as formerly with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and
Old Stony Phiz. Yes, Ernest, it is my doom. You must add my name
The Snow Image |
