| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: and warmed enough, and of having everything you can reasonably desire--
on the least provocation you are made uncomfortable and unhappy
by such abstract discomforts as being shut out from a nearer approach
to your neighbour's soul; which is on the face of it foolish,
the probability being that he hasn't got one.
The rockets are all out. The gardener, in a fit of inspiration,
put them right along the very front of two borders, and I don't
know what his feelings can be now that they are all flowering
and the plants behind are completely hidden; but I have learned
another lesson, and no future gardener shall be allowed
to run riot among my rockets in quite so reckless a fashion.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: swarthy man with coal-black moustache and steady eyes; but he might
have been a bit of a diplomatist, too. His enticing suggestions I
used to repel modestly by the assurance that it was extremely
unlikely, as I had not enough experience. "You know very well how
to go about business matters," he used to say, with a sort of
affected moodiness clouding his serene round face. I wonder
whether he ever laughed to himself after I had left the office. I
dare say he never did, because I understand that diplomatists, in
and out of the career, take themselves and their tricks with an
exemplary seriousness.
But he had nearly persuaded me that I was fit in every way to be
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: vassal, but had set myself up as an independent ruler, so I lay
in wait for him with one of my followers by the road side, and
speared him as he was coming into town from the country. It was
a very dark night and nobody saw us; it was not known,
therefore, that I had killed him, but as soon as I had done so I
went to a ship and besought the owners, who were Phoenicians, to
take me on board and set me in Pylos or in Elis where the Epeans
rule, giving them as much spoil as satisfied them. They meant no
guile, but the wind drove them off their course, and we sailed
on till we came hither by night. It was all we could do to get
inside the harbour, and none of us said a word about supper
The Odyssey |
