| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: intervals along the acclivity that led to their deserted quarters above,
gave a weird picturesqueness to the scene, that might vie with any
of the graphic descriptions of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments."
"How do you like this, Nina?" said Ben Zoof.
"_Va bene!_" replied the child. "We are only living in the cellars
instead of upon the ground floor."
"We will try and make ourselves comfortable," said the orderly.
"Oh yes, we will be happy here," rejoined the child; "it is nice and warm."
Although they were as careful as they could to conceal
their misgivings from the rest, Servadac and his two friends
could not regard their present situation without distrust.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: until this should be effected.
[Friday, 18th May]
The wind being now N.W., the sea was considerably run
down, and this morning at five o'clock the landing-master's
crew, thirteen in number, left the tender; and having now no
detention with the landing of artificers, they proceeded to
unmoor the HEDDERWICK praam-boat, and towed her alongside of
the SMEATON: and in the course of the day twenty-three blocks
of stone, three casks of pozzolano, three of sand, three of
lime, and one of Roman cement, together with three bundles of
trenails and three of wedges, were all landed on the rock and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: if there were any bodies in the world, or even any intelligences, or other
natures that were not wholly perfect, their existence depended on his power
in such a way that they could not subsist without him for a single moment.
I was disposed straightway to search for other truths and when I had
represented to myself the object of the geometers, which I conceived to be
a continuous body or a space indefinitely extended in length, breadth, and
height or depth, divisible into divers parts which admit of different
figures and sizes, and of being moved or transposed in all manner of ways
(for all this the geometers suppose to be in the object they contemplate),
I went over some of their simplest demonstrations. And, in the first
place, I observed, that the great certitude which by common consent is
Reason Discourse |
