| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: on the glass, I get a sticky solution, similar to that which a
particle of gum arabic might yield. The conclusion is evident:
the Epeira's glue is a substance that absorbs moisture freely. In
an atmosphere with a high degree of humidity, it becomes saturated
and percolates by sweating through the side of the tubular threads.
These data explain certain facts relating to the work of the net.
The full-grown Banded and Silky Epeirae weave at very early hours,
long before dawn. Should the air turn misty, they sometimes leave
that part of the task unfinished: they build the general
framework, they lay the spokes, they even draw the auxiliary
spiral, for all these parts are unaffected by excess of moisture;
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: sheet of beaten gold, entombed in a hole hollowed out of the
masonry of the semicircular space at the top of the stair he
defended so splendidly, which faces, as far as we can judge,
almost exactly towards Zululand. There he sits, and will sit
for ever, for they embalmed him with spices, and put him in an
air-tight stone coffer, keeping his grim watch beneath the spot
he held alone against a multitude; and the people say that at
night his ghost rises and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaas
at phantom foes. Certainly they fear during the dark hours to
pass the place where the hero is buried.
Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in the
Allan Quatermain |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: if his name were written all over his face.'
It might have been written a hundred times, easily, on that
enormous face. Humpty Dumpty was sitting with his legs crossed,
like a Turk, on the top of a high wall--such a narrow one that
Alice quite wondered how he could keep his balance--and, as his
eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite direction, and he didn't
take the least notice of her, she thought he must be a stuffed
figure after all.
`And how exactly like an egg he is!' she said aloud, standing
with her hands ready to catch him, for she was every moment
expecting him to fall.
Through the Looking-Glass |
