| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: little rosary of kisses is "Run away, darling." It is nicer than
"Hold your noise, you young devil; or it will be the worse for you";
but fundamentally it means the same thing: that if you compel an
adult and a child to live in one another's company either the adult or
the child will be miserable. There is nothing whatever unnatural or
wrong or shocking in this fact; and there is no harm in it if only it
be sensibly faced and provided for. The mischief that it does at
present is produced by our efforts to ignore it, or to smother it
under a heap of sentimental lies and false pretences.
Childhood as a State of Sin
Unfortunately all this nonsense tends to accumulate as we become more
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: and the air was cold as the water of a mountain spring.
We stretched ourselves behind a slab of granite,
and ate the luncheon we had brought, cold venison
steak and bread. By and by a marvelous thing
happened. A flash of wings sparkled in the air, a brave
little voice challenged us cheerily, a pert tiny rock-
wren flirted his tail and darted his wings and wanted
to know what we were thinking of anyway to enter
his especial territory. And shortly from nowhere
appeared two Canada Jays, silent as the wind itself,
hoping for a share in our meal. Then the Tenderfoot
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: chapter. "Is he well, and will he abide by his wager?"
"For well, sir, he started two hours since, and has visited I
know not what purlieus of his old companions; hath but now
returned, and is at this instant breakfasting on new-laid eggs
and muscadine. And for his wager, I caution you as a friend to
have little to do with that, or indeed with aught that Mike
proposes. Wherefore, I counsel you to a warm breakfast upon a
culiss, which shall restore the tone of the stomach; and let my
nephew and Master Goldthred swagger about their wager as they
list."
"It seems to me, mine host," said Tressilian, "that you know not
Kenilworth |
