| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Which virtue gave the golden age, to gild
Their silver cheeks, and call'd it then their shield;
Teaching them thus to use it in the fight,--
When shame assail'd, the red should fence the white.
This heraldry in Lucrece' face was seen,
Argued by beauty's red, and virtue's white:
Of either's colour was the other queen,
Proving from world's minority their right:
Yet their ambition makes them still to fight;
The sovereignty of either being so great,
That oft they interchange each other's seat.
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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: "And a crown of Glory," I suggested.
"Yes, of course, a crown of Glory--very large, since I shall be a
martyr; but I hope one will only have to wear it on Sundays, as I never
could bear anything heavy on my hair; moreover, it would remind me of a
Kaffir's head-ring done in gold, and I shall have had enough of Kaffirs.
Then there will be the harp," she went on as her imagination took fire
at the prospect of these celestial delights. "Have you ever seen a
harp, Allan? I haven't except that which King David carries in the
picture in the Book, which looks like a broken rimpi chair frame set up
edgeways. As for playing the thing, they will have to teach me, that's
all, which will be a difficult business, seeing that I would sooner
Marie |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: under the shadow of the great gilt pagoda, and
reached the outskirts of the town.
There it was, spread largely on both banks, the
Oriental capital which had as yet suffered no white
conqueror; an expanse of brown houses of bamboo,
of mats, of leaves, of a vegetable-matter style of
architecture, sprung out of the brown soil on the
banks of the muddy river. It was amazing to think
that in those miles of human habitations there was
not probably half a dozen pounds of nails. Some
of those houses of sticks and grass, like the nests of
The Shadow Line |
