| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: sight-seers at a menagerie may offend in a thousand ways, and quite
without meaning it, the noble and unfortunate animals behind the
bars; and there is no doubt but some of my compatriots were
susceptible beyond reason. Some of these old whiskerandos,
originally peasants, trained since boyhood in victorious armies,
and accustomed to move among subject and trembling populations,
could ill brook their change of circumstance. There was one man of
the name of Goguelat, a brute of the first water, who had enjoyed
no touch of civilisation beyond the military discipline, and had
risen by an extreme heroism of bravery to a grade for which he was
otherwise unfitted - that of MARECHAL DES LOGIS in the 22nd of the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: been engaged in moving an audience of Rennes to anger; on this
Wednesday he was to move an audience of Guichen to mirth. Then he
had been concerned to draw tears; to-day it was his business to
provoke laughter. There was a difference, and yet there was a
parallel. Then as now he had been a comedian; and the part that he
had played then was, when you came to think of it, akin to the part
he was to play this evening. For what had he been at Rennes but a
sort of Scaramouche - the little skirmisher, the astute intriguer,
spattering the seed of trouble with a sly hand? The only difference
lay in the fact that to-day he went forth under the name that
properly described his type, whereas last week he had been disguised
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: station to another. Provided with more sails than a cutter, and with the wind
behind them, they slip over the surface of the prairies with a speed equal
if not superior to that of the express trains.
Mr. Fogg readily made a bargain with the owner of this land-craft.
The wind was favourable, being fresh, and blowing from the west.
The snow had hardened, and Mudge was very confident of being able
to transport Mr. Fogg in a few hours to Omaha. Thence the trains
eastward run frequently to Chicago and New York. It was not impossible
that the lost time might yet be recovered; and such an opportunity
was not to be rejected.
Not wishing to expose Aouda to the discomforts of travelling
Around the World in 80 Days |
