| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: nod before climbing up indoors to seek his beloved opium pipe.
The elder children clustered round her, daring from long
acquaintance, pulling the skirts of her white robe with their
dark fingers, and showing their brilliant teeth in expectation
of a shower of glass beads. She greeted them with a quiet smile,
but always had a few friendly words for a Siamese girl, a slave
owned by Bulangi, whose numerous wives were said to be of a
violent temper. Well-founded rumour said also that the domestic
squabbles of that industrious cultivator ended generally in a
combined assault of all his wives upon the Siamese slave. The
girl herself never complained--perhaps from dictates of prudence,
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: that you, who seem to have so many ears in Kalawao, had heard
of the affair of Mr. Chapman's money, and were singly struck
by Damien's intended wrong-doing. I was struck with that
also, and set it fairly down; but I was struck much more by
the fact that he had the honesty of mind to be convinced. I
may here tell you that it was a long business; that one of
his colleagues sat with him late into the night, multiplying
arguments and accusations; that the father listened as usual
with 'perfect good-nature and perfect obstinacy'; but at the
last, when he was persuaded - 'Yes,' said he, 'I am very much
obliged to you; you have done me a service; it would have
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: "It may be," said Tressilian, "that I will embrace the same
purpose, so soon as I have settled some business at court."
"Thou business at court!" they both exclaimed at once, "and thou
make the Indian voyage!"
"Why, Tressilian," said the younger man, "art thou not wedded,
and beyond these flaws of fortune, that drive folks out to sea
when their bark bears fairest for the haven?-- What has become of
the lovely Indamira that was to match my Amoret for truth and
beauty?"
"Speak not of her!" said Tressilian, averting his face.
"Ay, stands it so with you?" said the youth, taking his hand
Kenilworth |
