| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: a fairer and a more tender foe. She found me in prison; she
cheered me with a priceless sympathy; what she has done since, I
know she has done in mercy, and I only pray - I dare scarce hope -
her mercy may prove to have been merciful. And I wish to conjoin
with these, for the first, and perhaps the last time, the health -
and I fear I may already say the memory - of one who has fought,
not always without success, against the soldiers of your nation;
but who came here, vanquished already, only to be vanquished again
by the loyal hand of the one, by the unforgettable eyes of the
other.'
It is to be feared I may have lent at times a certain resonancy to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: indeed any life in her? It was a mystery. Yet I saw plainly that once
she must have been young and beautiful; fair, with all the charm of
simplicity, perfect as some Greek statue, with the brow of a vestal.
"Ah! ah!" I cried, "now I know thee! Miserable woman, why hast thou
prostituted thyself? In the age of thy passions, in the time of thy
prosperity, the grace and purity of thy youth were forgotten.
Forgetful of thy heroic devotion, thy pure life, thy abundant faith,
thou didst resign thy primitive power and thy spiritual supremacy for
fleshly power. Thy linen vestments, thy couch of moss, the cell in the
rock, bright with rays of the Light Divine, was forsaken; thou hast
sparkled with diamonds, and shone with the glitter of luxury and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "No," replied Bradley; "But it would indicate that the island
of Caprona has stood almost without change for more than six
million years."
The conversation and Bradley's assurance that the creature was
not of supernatural origin helped to raise a trifle the spirits
of the men; and then came another diversion in the form of
ravenous meat-eaters attracted to the spot by the uncanny sense
of smell which had apprised them of the presence of flesh, killed
and ready for the eating.
It was a constant battle while they dug a grave and consigned all
that was mortal of John Tippet to his last, lonely resting-place.
Out of Time's Abyss |
