| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: here as if forever. There is no use in doing things by halves."
This ended the conversation. Breakfast was finished, the exploration was
continued, and the settlers arrived at the border of the marshy region. It
was a marsh of which the extent, to the rounded coast which terminated the
island at the southeast, was about twenty square miles. The soil was formed
of clayey flint-earth, mingled with vegetable matter, such as the remains
of rushes, reeds, grass, etc. Here and there beds of grass, thick as a
carpet, covered it. In many places icy pools sparkled in the sun. Neither
rain nor any river, increased by a sudden swelling, could supply these
ponds. They therefore naturally concluded that the marsh was fed by the
infiltrations of the soil and it was really so. It was also to be feared
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: diamonds.--Ah! wait.
"One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of
my blade and cut a hole; I crept on my belly like a serpent; I worked
naked and mole-fashion, my hands in front of me, using the stone
itself to gain a purchase. I was to appear before my judges in two
days' time, I made a final effort, and that night I bored through the
wood and felt that there was space beyond.
"Judge of my surprise when I applied my eye to the hole. I was in the
ceiling of a vault, heaps of gold were dimly visible in the faint
light. The Doge himself and one of the Ten stood below; I could hear
their voices and sufficient of their talk to know that this was the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rivers to the Sea by Sara Teasdale: It is full, as the lake is full,
From shore to shore.
RIVERS TO THE SEA
XI
Hamburg
The day that I come home,
What will you find to say,--
Words as light as foam
With laughter light as spray?
Yet say what words you will
The day that I come home;
|
