| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: five minutes one of the steam launches was rushing
shoreward to order a big boat and some hospital
people for the removal of the crew. The big
steam pinnace went off to her ship to bring over a
few bluejackets to furl my sails for me.
One of the surgeons had remained on board. He
came out of the forecastle looking impenetrable,
and noticed my inquiring gaze.
"There's nobody dead in there, if that's what
you want to know," he said deliberately. Then
added in a tone of wonder: "The whole crew!"
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: my summers at the Escarbas and the winters in Paris. It is the only
life for a woman of quality, and I have waited too long before
entering upon it. The one day will be enough for our preparations;
to-morrow night I shall set out, and you are coming with me, are you
not? You shall start first. I will overtake you between Mansle and
Ruffec, and we shall soon be in Paris. There, beloved, is the life for
a man who has anything in him. We are only at our ease among our
equals; we are uncomfortable in any other society. Paris, besides, is
the capital of the intellectual world, the stage on which you will
succeed; overleap the gulf that separates us quickly. You must not
allow your ideas to grow rancid in the provinces; put yourself into
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: powerful eloquence to beget faith in the unbelieving Jews; and
themselves to suffer for that Saviour, whom their forefathers and they
had crucified; and, in their sufferings, to preach freedom from the
incumbrances of the law, and a new way to everlasting life: this was the
employment of these happy fishermen. Concerning which choice. some
have made these observations:
First, that he never reproved these, for their employment or calling, as
he did the Scribes and the Money-changers. And secondly, he found
that the hearts of such men, by nature, were fitted for contemplation
and quietness; men of mild, and sweet, and peaceable spirits, as indeed
most Anglers are: these men our blessed Saviour, who is observed to
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