| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: engravings from the stanzas of Raphael in the Vatican--and with
most of the capitals of Europe as they had looked about 1780, by
means of several pig iron-moulded books of views. There was also
a broad eighteenth century atlas with huge wandering maps that
instructed me mightily. It had splendid adornments about each
map title; Holland showed a fisherman and his boat; Russia a
Cossack; Japan, remarkable people attired in pagodas--I say it
deliberately, "pagodas." There were Terrae Incognitae in every
continent then, Poland, Sarmatia, lands since lost; and many a
voyage I made with a blunted pin about that large, incorrect and
dignified world. The books in that little old closet had been
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King James Bible: EZE 23:7 Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that
were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all
their idols she defiled herself.
EZE 23:8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her
youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity,
and poured their whoredom upon her.
EZE 23:9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers,
into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
EZE 23:10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her
daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among
women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
King James Bible |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: had never moved in a higher sphere of influence than that of
parish overseer; and that the way in which I have come to the
conclusion that human nature is lovable--the way I have learnt
something of its deep pathos, its sublime mysteries--has been by
living a great deal among people more or less commonplace and
vulgar, of whom you would perhaps hear nothing very surprising if
you were to inquire about them in the neighbourhoods where they
dwelt. Ten to one most of the small shopkeepers in their vicinity
saw nothing at all in them. For I have observed this remarkable
coincidence, that the select natures who pant after the ideal, and
find nothing in pantaloons or petticoats great enough to command
Adam Bede |
