| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: As we see, the egg-bag of the Epeirae, particularly that of the
Banded Epeira, is an important and complex work. Various materials
enter into its composition: white silk, red silk, brown silk;
moreover, these materials are worked into dissimilar products:
stout cloth, soft eiderdown, dainty satinette, porous felt. And
all of this comes from the same workshop that weaves the hunting-
net, warps the zigzag ribbon-band and casts an entangling shroud
over the prey.
What a wonderful silk-factory it is! With a very simple and never-
varying plant, consisting of the hind-legs and the spinnerets, it
produces, by turns, rope-maker's, spinner's, weaver's, ribbon-
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Vesuvius, of course, in Italy; and Etna, in Sicily; and Hecla, in
Iceland. And you have heard, too, of Kilauea, in the Sandwich
Islands, and of Pele's Hair--the yellow threads of lava, like fine
spun glass, which are blown from off its pools of fire, and which
the Sandwich Islanders believed to be the hair of a goddess who
lived in the crater;--and you have read, too, I hope, in Miss
Yonge's Book of Golden Deeds, the noble story of the Christian
chieftainess who, in order to persuade her subjects to become
Christians also, went down into the crater and defied the goddess
of the volcano, and came back unhurt and triumphant.
But if you look at the map, you will see that there are many, many
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: cessation of three years. The Revolution, mitigated by the events of
the 9th Thermidor, would doubtless return to the old terrors which had
made it odious to sound minds. English gold would, as formerly, assist
in the national discords. The Republic, abandoned by young Bonaparte
who had seemed to be its tutelary genius, was no longer in a condition
to resist its enemies from without and from within,--the worst and
most cruel of whom were the last to appear. The Civil War, already
threatened by various partial uprisings, would assume a new and far
more serious aspect if the Chouans were now to attack so strong an
escort. Such were the reflections that filled the mind of the
commander (though less succinctly formulated) as soon as he perceived,
The Chouans |
