| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: are its many-coloured floor of green, white, yellow, and blue;
the may-flower, and the woodbine, and the eglantine, and the ivy,
are its decorations, its curtains, and its tapestry: the lark,
and the thrush, and the linnet, and the nightingale, are its
unhired minstrels and musicians. Robin Hood is king of the forest
both by dignity of birth and by virtue of his standing army:
to say nothing of the free choice of his people, which he
has indeed, but I pass it by as an illegitimate basis of power.
He holds his dominion over the forest, and its horned multitude
of citizen-deer, and its swinish multitude or peasantry
of wild boars, by right of conquest and force of arms.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: of the passengers, and the name of Phileas Fogg is not among them.
Even if we admit that fortune has favoured him, he can scarcely
have reached America. I think he will be at least twenty days behind-hand,
and that Lord Albemarle will lose a cool five thousand."
"It is clear," replied Gauthier Ralph; "and we have nothing to do
but to present Mr. Fogg's cheque at Barings to-morrow."
At this moment, the hands of the club clock pointed
to twenty minutes to nine.
"Five minutes more," said Andrew Stuart.
The five gentlemen looked at each other. Their anxiety was becoming intense;
but, not wishing to betray it, they readily assented to Mr. Fallentin's
Around the World in 80 Days |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
