| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: fastened by knobs with intricate turnings. My own history was
assigned a specific place in the vaults of the lowest or vertebrate
level - the section devoted to the culture of mankind and of the
furry and reptilian races immediately preceding it in terrestrial
dominance.
But none of the dreams ever gave me a full picture
of daily life. All were the merest misty, disconnected fragments,
and it is certain that these fragments were not unfolded in their
rightful sequence. I have, for example, a very imperfect idea
of my own living arrangements in the dream-world; though I seem
to have possessed a great stone room of my own. My restrictions
Shadow out of Time |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: the favorite of grisettes, the man who jumps lightly to the top of a
stage-coach, gives a hand to the timid lady who fears to step down,
jokes with the postillion about his neckerchief and contrives to sell
him a cap, smiles at the maid and catches her round the waist or by
the heart; gurgles at dinner like a bottle of wine and pretends to
draw the cork by sounding a filip on his distended cheek; plays a tune
with his knife on the champagne glasses without breaking them, and
says to the company, "Let me see you do THAT"; chaffs the timid
traveller, contradicts the knowing one, lords it over a dinner-table
and manages to get the titbits for himself. A strong fellow,
nevertheless, he can throw aside all this nonsense and mean business
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: away my breath! Let us throw open the doors!"
"In all our lives there can never come another moment like this!"
said Holgrave. "Phoebe, is it all terror?--nothing but terror?
Are you conscious of no joy, as I am, that has made this the only
point of life worth living for?"
"It seems a sin," replied Phoebe, trembling,"to think of joy at
such a time!"
"Could you but know, Phoebe, how it was with me the hour before
you came!" exclaimed the artist. "A dark, cold, miserable hour!
The presence of yonder dead man threw a great black shadow over
everything; he made the universe, so far as my perception could
House of Seven Gables |
