| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: most sport in a dark day, and the darkest and least fly in a bright or
clear day: and lastly note, that you are to repair upon any occasion to
your magazine-bag: and upon any occasion, vary and make them lighter
or sadder, according to your fancy, or the day.
And now I shall tell you, that the fishing with a natural-fly is excellent,
and affords much pleasure. They may be found thus: the May-fly,
usually in and about that month, near to the river-side, especially
against rain: the Oak-fly, on the butt or body of an oak or ash, from the
beginning of May to the end of August; it is a brownish fly and easy to
be so found, and stands usually with his head downward, that is to say,
towards the root of the tree: the small black-fly, or Hawthorn-fly, is to
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: she was telling a story, and rather exulting in the fact. She washed up
the breakfast things, then went down to the cellar to look out the potatoes
and beetroot.
Such a funny, cold place the coal cellar! With potatoes banked on one
corner, beetroot in an old candle box, two tubs of sauerkraut, and a
twisted mass of dahlia roots--that looked as real as though they were
fighting one another, thought the Child.
She gathered the potatoes into her skirt, choosing big ones with few eyes
because they were easier to peel, and bending over the dull heap in the
silent cellar, she began to nod.
"Here, you, what are you doing down there?" cried the Frau, from the top of
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: which thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, you
turn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, though
you cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned
with curls of faint blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid with
pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height,
and thirty-six in circumference. Here also, hinged to the foundations
of the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold. All night and,
except at one hour, all day also, these petals are closed over
the altar itself exactly as the petals of a water-lily close
over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the sun at
midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon
Allan Quatermain |
