| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Koran: threw their lots which of them should take care of Mary, nor were ye
by them when they did dispute.'
When the angel said, 'O Mary! verily, God gives thee the glad
tidings of a Word from Him; his name shall be the Messiah Jesus the
son of Mary, regarded in this world and the next and of those whose
place is nigh to God. And he shall speak to people in his cradle,
and when grown up, and shall be among the righteous.' She said, 'Lord!
how can have a son, when man has not yet touched me?' He said, 'Thus
God creates what He pleaseth. When He decrees a matter He only says BE
and it is; and He will teach him the Book, and wisdom, and the law,
and the gospel, and he shall be a prophet to the people of Israel
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: only turned for another look at it. I admit that I was absorbed by the
distant view, so absorbed that I didn't notice then that the motif of
the story is almost identical with the motif of "The Lagoon." However,
the idea at the back is very different; but the story is mainly made
memorable to me by the fact that it was my first contribution to
"Blackwood's Magazine" and that it led to my personal acquaintance
with Mr. William Blackwood whose guarded appreciation I felt
nevertheless to be genuine, and prized accordingly. "Karain" was begun
on a sudden impulse only three days after I wrote the last line of
"The Nigger," and the recollection of its difficulties is mixed up
with the worries of the unfinished "Return," the last pages of which I
Tales of Unrest |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: adopt him, too, for just as long as convenient to Lin--until the school
opened on Bear Creek, if Lin so wished. Jessamine wrote a good deal about
how much better care any woman can take of a boy of Billy's age than any
man knows. The stage-coach brought the answer to this remarkably soon--
young Billy with a trunk and a letter of twelve pages in pencil and ink--
the only writing of this length ever done by Mr. McLean.
"I can write a lot quicker than Lin," said Billy, upon arriving. "He was
fussing at that away late by the fire in camp, an' waked me up crawling
in our bed. An' then he had to finish it next night when he went over to
the cabin for my clothes."
"You don't say!" said Jessamine. And Billy suffered her to kiss him
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