| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: succeed? Or was there a touch of pity and encouragement in
that inscrutable smile--a promise that even the defeated
should attain a victory, and the disappointed should discover a
prize, and the ignorant should be made wise, and the blind should
see, and the wandering should come into the haven at last?
I saw him again in an obscure house of Alexandria, taking
counsel with a Hebrew rabbi. The venerable man, bending over
the rolls of parchment on which the prophecies of Israel were
written, read aloud the pathetic words which foretold the
sufferings of the promised Messiah--the despised and rejected
of men, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: "You have a real good terrifying Ghost in that book?" I hinted.
"How could you guess?" she exclaimed with the most engaging frankness,
and placed the volume in my hands. I opened it eagerly, with a not
unpleasant thrill like what a good ghost-story gives one) at the
'uncanny' coincidence of my having so unexpectedly divined the subject
of her studies.
It was a book of Domestic Cookery, open at the article Bread Sauce.'
I returned the book, looking, I suppose, a little blank, as the lady
laughed merrily at my discomfiture. "It's far more exciting than some
of the modern ghosts, I assure you! Now there was a Ghost last
month--I don't mean a real Ghost in in Supernature--but in a
Sylvie and Bruno |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: down to the lake, that I might see a glimpse of the promised wonders.
The night had fallen already when I reached the water-side, at a
place where many pleasure-boats are moored and ready for hire; and as
I went along a stony path, between wood and water, a strong wind blew
in gusts from the far end of the lake. The sky was covered with
flying scud; and, as this was ragged, there was quite a wild chase of
shadow and moon-glimpse over the surface of the shuddering water. I
had to hold my hat on, and was growing rather tired, and inclined to
go back in disgust, when a little incident occurred to break the
tedium. A sudden and violent squall of wind sundered the low
underwood, and at the same time there came one of those brief
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