| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: before a slight collision with another passenger reminded him of
the bandbox on his arm.
"Heavens!" cried he, "where was my head? and whither have I
wandered?"
Thereupon he consulted the envelope which Lady Vandeleur had given
him. The address was there, but without a name. Harry was simply
directed to ask for "the gentleman who expected a parcel from Lady
Vandeleur," and if he were not at home to await his return. The
gentleman, added the note, should present a receipt in the
handwriting of the lady herself. All this seemed mightily
mysterious, and Harry was above all astonished at the omission of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: Pisano down to Mantegna's 'Triumph of Caesar,' and the service
Cellini designed for King Francis, the influence of this spirit can
be traced; nor was it confined merely to the immobile arts - the
arts of arrested movement - but its influence was to be seen also
in the great Graeco-Roman masques which were the constant amusement
of the gay courts of the time, and in the public pomps and
processions with which the citizens of big commercial towns were
wont to greet the princes that chanced to visit them; pageants, by
the way, which were considered so important that large prints were
made of them and published - a fact which is a proof of the general
interest at the time in matters of such kind.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: probably they would not reach till nightfall. From this point the view of
the sea was much extended, but on the right the high promontory prevented
their seeing whether there was land beyond it. On the left, the sight
extended several miles to the north; but, on the northwest, at the point
occupied by the explorers, it was cut short by the ridge of a
fantastically-shaped spur, which formed a powerful support of the central
cone.
At one o'clock the ascent was continued. They slanted more towards the
southwest and again entered among thick bushes. There under the shade of
the trees fluttered several couples of gallinaceae belonging to the
pheasant species. They were tragopans, ornamented by a pendant skin which
The Mysterious Island |
