| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: tranquil face it was a great play of feature. "An intimacy," began
Mr. Blunt, with an extremely refined grimness of tone, "an intimacy
with the heiress of Mr. Allegre on the part of . . . on my part,
well, it isn't exactly . . . it's open . . . well, I leave it to
you, what does it look like?"
"Is there anybody looking on?" Mills let fall, gently, through his
kindly lips.
"Not actually, perhaps, at this moment. But I don't need to tell a
man of the world, like you, that such things cannot remain unseen.
And that they are, well, compromising, because of the mere fact of
the fortune."
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: fixed upon the face of her who slept therein and waving his long
arms above her.
"Hypnotic business! Wonder if it will work," whispered Bickley.
Then he lifted the syringe and looked inquiringly at the man, who
shook his head, and went on with his mesmeric passes.
I crept round him and took my stand by the sleeper's head, that
I might watch her face, which was well worth watching, while
Bickley, with his medicine at hand, remained near her feet, I
think engaged in disinfecting the syringe in some spirit or acid.
I believe he was about to make an attempt to use it when
suddenly, as though beneath the influence of the hypnotic passes,
When the World Shook |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: il n'y a qu'un pas.
*"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
And it occurs to no one that to admit a greatness not
commensurable with the standard of right and wrong is merely to
admit one's own nothingness and immeasurable meanness.
For us with the standard of good and evil given us by Christ, no
human actions are incommensurable. And there is no greatness where
simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.
CHAPTER XIX
What Russian, reading the account of the last part of the campaign
of 1812, has not experienced an uncomfortable feeling of regret,
War and Peace |
