| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: endeavored to hold it firm, but in vain; and had just time to
save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round the neck, when the
saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it trampled under foot by
his pursuer. For a moment the terror of Hans Van Ripper's wrath
passed across his mind, --for it was his Sunday saddle; but this
was no time for petty fears; the goblin was hard on his haunches;
and (unskilful rider that he was!) he had much ado to maintain
his seat; sometimes slipping on one side, sometimes on another,
and sometimes jolted on the high ridge of his horse's backbone,
with a violence that he verily feared would cleave him asunder.
An opening, in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: "Who are you," asked the hunter, "who alone come to me in my solitude and
darkness?"
"We are the twins Sensuality," they cried. "Our father's name is Human-
Nature, and our mother's name is Excess. We are as old as the hills and
rivers, as old as the first man; but we never die," they laughed.
"Oh, let me wrap my arms about you!" cried the first; "they are soft and
warm. Your heart is frozen now, but I will make it beat. Oh, come to me!"
"I will pour my hot life into you," said the second; "your brain is numb,
and your limbs are dead now; but they shall live with a fierce free life.
Oh, let me pour it in!"
"Oh, follow us," they cried, "and live with us. Nobler hearts than yours
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: it was as the degenerate boy through whom the honour of his
country and clan had been lost; and he died in the course of
three days, never even mentioning his name, but pouring out
unintermitted lamentations for the loss of his noble sword.
I conceive that the moment when the disabled chief was roused
into a last exertion by the agony of the moment is favourable to
the object of a painter. He might obtain the full advantage of
contrasting the form of the rugged old man, in the extremity of
furious despair, with the softness and beauty of the female form.
The fatal field might be thrown into perspective, so as to give
full effect to these two principal figures, and with the single
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