| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: incredible proceeding. I turned to the text in
wonder.
In a large, hurried, but legible hand the good,
sympathetic man for some reason, either of kind-
ness or more likely impelled by the irresistible de-
sire to express his opinion, with which he didn't
want to damp my hopes before, was warning me
not to put my trust in the beneficial effects of a
change from land to sea. "I didn't want to add to
your worries by discouraging your hopes," he
wrote. "I am afraid that, medically speaking, the
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: on her way as if she had been deaf. She and I alone
all in the land, I fancy, could see his very real
beauty. He was very good-looking, and most
graceful in his bearing, with that something wild
as of a woodland creature in his aspect. Her moth-
er moaned over her dismally whenever the girl came
to see her on her day out. The father was surly,
but pretended not to know; and Mrs. Finn once
told her plainly that 'this man, my dear, will do
you some harm some day yet.' And so it went on.
They could be seen on the roads, she tramping stol-
Amy Foster |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: admiration of the more simple; that jurisprudence, medicine, and the other
sciences, secure for their cultivators honors and riches; and, in fine,
that it is useful to bestow some attention upon all, even upon those
abounding the most in superstition and error, that we may be in a position
to determine their real value, and guard against being deceived.
But I believed that I had already given sufficient time to languages, and
likewise to the reading of the writings of the ancients, to their
histories and fables. For to hold converse with those of other ages and
to travel, are almost the same thing. It is useful to know something of
the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more
correct judgment regarding our own, and be prevented from thinking that
Reason Discourse |
