| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: were, underlined the uttered words, that I was at a loss whether to
return the smile in kind or acknowledge the words with a grave
little bow. Of course I did neither and there fell on us an odd,
equivocal silence. It marked our final abandonment of the French
language. I was the one to speak first, proposing that my
companions should sup with me, not across the way, which would be
riotous with more than one "infernal" supper, but in another much
more select establishment in a side street away from the
Cannebiere. It flattered my vanity a little to be able to say that
I had a corner table always reserved in the Salon des Palmiers,
otherwise Salon Blanc, where the atmosphere was legitimist and
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: under him in the street below, he cried to the others excitedly:
"That was Allen right enough! But where is his brig?"
Jasper heard these words with extraordinary loudness. The heavens
rang with them, as if calling him to account; for those were the
very words Freya would have to use. It was an annihilating
question; it struck his consciousness like a thunderbolt and
brought a sudden night upon the chaos of his thoughts even as he
walked. He did not check his pace. He went on in the darkness for
another three strides, and then fell.
The good Mesman had to push on as far as the hospital before he
found him. The doctor there talked of a slight heatstroke.
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: and learned men who are never naughty.
O Brahma, thou rare old Divinity,
First Person of the Hindoo Trinity,
You sit there so calm and securely,
With feet folded up so demurely --
You're the First Person Singular, surely.
Polydore Smith
BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think what we think. That which
distinguishes the man who is content to _be_ something from the man
who wishes to _do_ something. A man of great wealth, or one who has
been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of
The Devil's Dictionary |
