| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: from thence they jumped on to some flat roofing, and so made
their way down a chimney into a room where I kept books.
A number of these, with parchment backs, they entirely destroyed,
as well as some half-dozen books whole bound in parchment."
Another friend informs me that in the Natural History Museum of the
Devon and Exeter Institution is a specimen of "another little pest,
which has a great affection for bindings in calf and roan.
Its scientific name is Niptus Hololeucos." He adds, "Are you aware
that there was a terrible creature allied to these, rejoicing in
the name of Tomicus Typographus, which committed sad ravages in Germany
in the seventeenth century, and in the old liturgies of that country
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: him, or to my mother, who always speaks to me in Hindustani. I
don't think I had any special hankering to write poetry as a
little child, though I was of a very fanciful and dreamy nature.
My training under my father's eye was of a sternly scientific
character. He was determined that I should be a great
mathematician or a scientist, but the poetic instinct, which I
inherited from him and also from my mother (who wrote some lovely
Bengali lyrics in her youth) proved stronger. One day, when I
was eleven, I was sighing over a sum in algebra: it WOULDN'T come
right; but instead a whole poem came to me suddenly. I wrote it
down.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: on foot, and the flock, used to following him, got under way readily.
Dave and Mescal rode along the sides, and August with Jack came behind,
with the pack-burros bringing up the rear. Wolf circled them all,
keeping the flanks close in, heading the lambs that strayed, and, ever
vigilant, made the drive orderly and rapid.
The trail to the upper range was wide and easy of ascent, the first of it
winding under crags, the latter part climbing long slopes. It forked
before the summit, where dark pine trees showed against the sky, one fork
ascending, the other, which Piute took, beginning to go down. It
admitted of no extended view, being shut in for the most part on the
left, but there were times when Hare could see a curving stream of sheep
The Heritage of the Desert |
