| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: docks and workshops, where, with many blows of hammers, her
pulsating heart of steel was set going again to go forth presently
in the renewed pride of its strength, fed on fire and water,
breathing black smoke into the air, pulsating, throbbing,
shouldering its arrogant way against the great rollers in blind
disdain of winds and sea.
The track she had made when drifting while her heart stood still
within her iron ribs looked like a tangled thread on the white
paper of the chart. It was shown to me by a friend, her second
officer. In that surprising tangle there were words in minute
letters - "gales," "thick fog," "ice" - written by him here and
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: and he had had sufficient experience of her humour to know
that she might sometimes be led, but never could be driven.
Then, too, he was always delighted to hear her sing, though he was
not at all pleased in this instance with the subject of her song.
Still he would have endured the subject for the sake of the melody
of the treble, but his mind was not sufficiently attuned to unison
to relish the harmony of the bass. The friar's accompaniment
put him out of all patience, and--"So," he exclaimed, "this is
the way, you teach my daughter to renounce the devil, is it?
A hunting friar, truly! Who ever heard before of a hunting friar?
A profane, roaring, bawling, bumper-bibbing, neck-breaking,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: 'I don't think it would be a success,' he said, looking at me
resolutely with his clear blue eyes, in which still lay, alas! the
possibility of many delusions.
'No,' I said, 'I never did, you know. But the prospect had begun to
impose upon me.'
'To say how right you were would seem, under the circumstances, the
most hateful form of flattery.'
'Yes,' I said, 'I think I can dispense with your verbal
endorsement.' I felt a little bitter. It was, of course, better
that the connoisseur should have discovered the flaw before
concluding the transaction; but although I had pointed it out myself
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