| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: de raison; while with us, fortunately, mendacity is generally
discredited. But we need not travel so far for proof. The same is
evident in less antipodal relations. Have the least religious
nations of Europe been any less truthful than the most bigoted? Was
fanatic Spain remarkable for veracity? Was Loyola a gentleman whose
assertions carried conviction other than to the stake? Were the
eminently mundane burghers whom he persecuted noted for a pious
superiority to fact? Or, to narrow the field still further, and scan
the circle of one's own acquaintance, are the most believing
individuals among them worthy of the most belief? Assuredly not.
We come, then, to the second point. Has there been any influence at
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: below and grim and desolate above. . . .
These were unforgettable scenes, and so too was the wild lonely
valley through which they rode to Ochrida amidst walnut and chestnut
trees and scattered rocks, and the first vision of that place
itself, with its fertile levels dotted with sheep and cattle, its
castle and clustering mosques, its spacious blue lake and the great
mountains rising up towards Olympus under the sun. And there was
the first view of the blue Lake of Presba seen between silvery beech
stems, and that too had Olympus in the far background, plain now and
clear and unexpectedly snowy. And there were midday moments when
they sat and ate under vines and heard voices singing very
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: bouquet of flowers. "Buy a posy, buy a posy! Only a 'ap'ny!" he
chanted, with the melancholy drawl of a professional beggar.
"Don't buy it!" was Her Majesty's edict as she looked down, with a
lofty scorn that seemed curiously mixed with tender interest, on the
ragged creature at her feet.
But this time I turned rebel, and ignored the royal commands.
Such lovely flowers, and of forms so entirely new to me, were not to be
abandoned at the bidding of any little maid, however imperious.
I bought the bouquet: and the little boy, after popping the halfpenny
into his mouth, turned head-over-heels, as if to ascertain whether the
human mouth is really adapted to serve as a money-box.
Sylvie and Bruno |
