| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: something that glossed over, something that salved and simplified,
all the rest of consciousness. He circulated, talked, renewed,
loosely and pleasantly, old relations - met indeed, so far as he
could, new expectations and seemed to make out on the whole that in
spite of the career, of such different contacts, which he had
spoken of to Miss Staverton as ministering so little, for those who
might have watched it, to edification, he was positively rather
liked than not. He was a dim secondary social success - and all
with people who had truly not an idea of him. It was all mere
surface sound, this murmur of their welcome, this popping of their
corks - just as his gestures of response were the extravagant
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: "Surely it were safe to do this thing, Will"; whereat the other nodded.
Thereupon both arose, and the tall yeoman said, "We think thou art true,
Sir Page, and meanest no harm, therefore we will guide thee to Robin Hood
as thou dost wish."
Then Partington paid his score, and the yeomen coming forward,
they all straightway departed upon their way.
Under the greenwood tree, in the cool shade that spread all
around upon the sward, with flickering lights here and there,
Robin Hood and many of his band lay upon the soft green grass,
while Allan a Dale sang and played upon his sweetly sounding harp.
All listened in silence, for young Allan's singing was one of the greatest
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: "Certainly," said I, carried away by the Captain's reasoning;
"if the surface of the sea is solidified by the ice,
the lower depths are free by the Providential law which has
placed the maximum of density of the waters of the ocean one
degree higher than freezing-point; and, if I am not mistaken,
the portion of this iceberg which is above the water is as one
to four to that which is below."
"Very nearly, sir; for one foot of iceberg above the sea there
are three below it. If these ice mountains are not more than 300
feet above the surface, they are not more than 900 beneath.
And what are 900 feet to the Nautilus?"
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
