| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: spun-out inanities and wearisome affectations often annoy one,
yet his books are so beautifully illustrated, and he is so full
of personal anecdote and chit chat, that it grieves the heart to see
"foxey" stains common in his most superb works.
In a perfectly dry and warm library these spots would probably
remain undeveloped, but many endowed as well as private libraries are not
in daily use, and are often injured from a false idea that a hard frost
and prolonged cold do no injury to a library so long as the weather is dry.
The fact is that books should never be allowed to get really cold,
for when a thaw comes and the weather sets in warm, the air, laden with damp,
penetrates the inmost recesses, and working its way between the volumes
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: and knees now, lest she should make a sound, began to crawl upward.
And a little way up, panic fear seized upon her again, and her heart
stood still, and she turned a miserable face in the darkness back
toward the door below, and fought against the impulse to retreat
again.
And then she heard Danglar speak, and from her new vantage point
his words came to her distinctly this time:
"Good work, Skeeny! You've got the Sparrow nicely trussed up, I
see. Well, he'll do as he is for a while there. I told the boys
to hold off a bit. It's safer to wait an hour or two yet, before
moving him away from here and bumping him off."
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: furious outbreak among the Orange faction. The Attorney
General caused, on the 16th of August, 1672, Cornelius de
Witt to be arrested; and the noble brother of John de Witt
had, like the vilest criminal, to undergo, in one of the
apartments of the town prison, the preparatory degrees of
torture, by means of which his judges expected to force from
him the confession of his alleged plot against William of
Orange.
But Cornelius was not only possessed of a great mind, but
also of a great heart. He belonged to that race of martyrs
who, indissolubly wedded to their political convictions as
The Black Tulip |
