| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: to come in deputation to me to make me a requisition which,
in justice, I could not refuse. We were immured in ice and should
probably never escape, but they feared that if, as was possible,
the ice should dissipate and a free passage be opened, I should be
rash enough to continue my voyage and lead them into fresh dangers,
after they might happily have surmounted this. They insisted,
therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise that if the
vessel should be freed I would instantly direct my course southwards.
This speech troubled me. I had not despaired, nor had I yet
conceived the idea of returning if set free. Yet could I,
in justice, or even in possibility, refuse this demand?
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: festival of girls, and commemorates the birth of girls generally,
the advent of the universal feminine, as one may say. The second is
a corresponding anniversary for boys. Owing to its sex, the latter
is the greater event of the two, and in consequence of its most
conspicuous feature is styled the festival of fishes. The fishes
are hollow paper images of the "tai" from four to six feet in length,
tied to the top of a long pole planted in the ground and tipped with
a gilded ball. Holes in the paper at the mouth and the tail enable
the wind to inflate the body so that it floats about horizontally,
swaying hither and thither, and tugging at the line after the manner
of a living thing. The fish are emblems of good luck, and are set
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: So, John of France, I see you keep your word:
You promised to be sooner with our self
Than we did think for, and tis so in deed:
But, had you done at first as now you do,
How many civil towns had stood untouched,
That now are turned to ragged heaps of stones!
How many people's lives mightst thou have saved,
That are untimely sunk into their graves!
KING JOHN.
Edward, recount not things irrevocable;
Tell me what ransom thou requirest to have.
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