| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: the tiny drops of perspiration on her forehead looked like dew upon
white marble.
She made no sound; and the burning gaze of that multitude of men was
concentrated upon her.
A sound like the snapping of fingers came from the gallery over the
pavilion. Instantly, with one of her movements of bird-like swiftness,
Salome stood erect. The next moment she rapidly passed up a flight of
steps leading to the gallery, and coming to the front of it she leaned
over, smiled upon the tetrarch, and, with an air of almost childlike
naivete, pronounced these words:
"I ask my lord to give me, placed upon a charger, the head of--" She
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: he dodged all day long about the galley drying his hand-
kerchief before the stove. Apparently he never slept.
He was a dismal man, with a perpetual tear sparkling
at the end of his nose, who either had been in trouble, or
was in trouble, or expected to be in trouble--couldn't be
happy unless something went wrong. He mistrusted
my youth, my common-sense, and my seamanship, and
made a point of showing it in a hundred little ways. I
dare say he was right. It seems to me I knew very little
then, and I know not much more now; but I cherish a
hate for that Jermyn to this day.
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: surprise capture of some single mountain crest and the hoisting
of one gun into position there may block the retreat of guns and
material from a great series of positions. Mountain surfaces are
extraordinarily various and subtle. You may understand Picardy
on a map, but mountain warfare is three-dimensional. A struggle
may go on for weeks or months consisting of apparently separate
and incidental skirmishes, and then suddenly a whole valley
organisation may crumble away in retreat or disaster. Italy is
gnawing into the Trentino day by day, and particularly around by
her right wing. At no time I shall be surprised to see a sudden
lunge forward on that front, and hear a tale of guns and
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