| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: unrig the dogs an' grub 'em. An' don't be shy o' the wood, my
lad; there's plenty more where that come from, and it's you've got
the time to sling an axe. An' tote up a bucket o' water while
you're about it. Lively! or I'll run you down, so 'elp me!"
Such a thing was unheard of. Jacob Kent was making the fire,
chopping wood, packing water--doing menial tasks for a guest!
When Jim Cardegee left Dawson, it was with his head filled with
the iniquities of this roadside Shylock; and all along the trail
his numerous victims had added to the sum of his crimes. Now, Jim
Cardegee, with the sailor's love for a sailor's joke, had
determined, when he pulled into the cabin, to bring its inmate
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: behind again, and flew rather than galloped towards the pile of
ruins, which that day's sun had shone upon, a stately house. Mr
Willet stared after them, listened, looked down upon himself to
make quite sure that he was still unbound, and, without any
manifestation of impatience, disappointment, or surprise, gently
relapsed into the condition from which he had so imperfectly
recovered.
Mr Haredale tied his horse to the trunk of a tree, and grasping his
companion's arm, stole softly along the footpath, and into what had
been the garden of his house. He stopped for an instant to look
upon its smoking walls, and at the stars that shone through roof
Barnaby Rudge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas
knew. And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides.
I was rather literary in college--one year I wrote a series of very
solemn and obvious editorials for the "Yale News."--and now I was going
to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most
limited of all specialists, the "well-rounded man." This isn't just an
epigram--life is much more successfully looked at from a single window,
after all.
It was a matter of chance that I should have rented a house in one of
the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender
riotous island which extends itself due east of New York--and where
The Great Gatsby |
