| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: my hand. "You wait here and- "
I broke off abruptly, and one of the more violent expletives,
indicative of combined horror and amazement, escaped my lips
before I could stop it.
"What is it?" wailed the Mermaid.
On the crest of a wave, some thirty yards from the shore, danced
my grey hat. Beyond it, a little to the right, was something
which might be a shirt.
Stammering incoherent sentences, I staggered into the water and
swam for the hat. When I had caught it, I went on to get the
shirt. I would have gone on round the headland to my cove, only
The Brother of Daphne |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: experts in language both ancient and modern; its very alphabet,
notwithstanding a general resemblance to the heavily-shaded Arabic
used in Mesopotamia, being absolutely unknown to any available
authority. The final conclusion of the linguists was that the
text represented an artificial alphabet, giving the effect of
a cipher; though none of the usual methods of cryptographic solution
seemed to furnish any clue, even when applied on the basis of
every tongue the writer might conceivably have used. The ancient
books taken from Whateley's quarters, while absorbingly interesting
and in several cases promising to open up new and terrible lines
of research among philosophers and men of science, were of no
The Dunwich Horror |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: those who believe the incredible, like the public - and those who
do the improbable -
MRS. ALLONBY. Like yourself?
LORD ILLINGWORTH. Yes; I am always astonishing myself. It is the
only thing that makes life worth living.
LADY STUTFIELD. And what have you been doing lately that
astonishes you?
LORD ILLINGWORTH. I have been discovering all kinds of beautiful
qualities in my own nature.
MRS. ALLONBY. Ah! don't become quite perfect all at once. Do it
gradually!
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