| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: the tip of my right ear. But because the reader may be curious
to have some idea of the style and manner of expression peculiar
to that people, as well as to know the article upon which I
recovered my liberty, I have made a translation of the whole
instrument, word for word, as near as I was able, which I here
offer to the public.
"Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, most
mighty Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of the universe,
whose dominions extend five thousand BLUSTRUGS (about twelve
miles in circumference) to the extremities of the globe; monarch
of all monarchs, taller than the sons of men; whose feet press
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: among them, or parasitic on the sea-weed. Here are Flustrae, or
sea-mats. This, which smells very like Verbena, is Flustra
coriacea (Pl. I. Fig. 2). That scurf on the frond of ore-weed is
F. lineata (Pl. Fig. 1). The glass bells twined about this
Sertularia are Campanularia syringa (Pl. I. Fig. 9); and here is a
tiny plant of Cellularia ciliata (Pl. I. Fig. 8). Look at it
through the field-glass; for it is truly wonderful. Each polype
cell is edged with whip-like spines, and on the back of some of
them is - what is it, but a live vulture's head, snapping and
snapping - what for?
Nay, reader, I am here to show you what can be seen: but as for
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: sadly to his own soul:
"Marooned, by thunder!"
Congress and the People
SUCCESSIVE Congresses having greatly impoverished the People, they
were discouraged and wept copiously.
"Why do you weep?" inquired an Angel who had perched upon a fence
near by.
"They have taken all we have," replied the People - "excepting,"
they added, noting the suggestive visitant - "excepting our hope in
heaven. Thank God, they cannot deprive us of that!"
But at last came the Congress of 1889.
Fantastic Fables |
