| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: wintry and deserted aspect of all those ships that seemed to decay
in grim depression for want of the open water. I was chief mate,
and very much alone. Directly I had joined I received from my
owners instructions to send all the ship's apprentices away on
leave together, because in such weather there was nothing for
anybody to do, unless to keep up a fire in the cabin stove. That
was attended to by a snuffy and mop-headed, inconceivably dirty,
and weirdly toothless Dutch ship-keeper, who could hardly speak
three words of English, but who must have had some considerable
knowledge of the language, since he managed invariably to interpret
in the contrary sense everything that was said to him.
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: putaret, haec esse quae ab eo postularet: primum ne quam multitudinem
hominum amplius trans Rhenum in Galliam traduceret; deinde obsides quos
haberet ab Haeduis redderet Sequanisque permitteret ut quos illi haberent
voluntate eius reddere illis liceret; neve Haeduos iniuria lacesseret neve
his sociisque eorum bellum inferret. Si [id] ita fecisset, sibi populoque
Romano perpetuam gratiam atque amicitiam cum eo futuram; si non
impetraret, sese, quoniam M. Messala, M. Pisone consulibus senatus
censuisset uti quicumque Galliam provinciam obtineret, quod commodo rei
publicae lacere posset, Haeduos ceterosque amicos populi Romani
defenderet, se Haeduorum iniurias non neglecturum.
Ad haec Ariovistus respondit: ius esse belli ut qui vicissent iis
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: few,
Is the dearest of all their treasures.
An' the richest man to the poorest waif
Right under the skin is brother
When they stand an' sigh, with a tear-dimmed
eye,
At a thought of the dear old mother.
It makes no difference where it may be,
Nor the fortunes that years may alter,
Be they simple or wise, the old home ties
Make all of 'em often falter.
A Heap O' Livin' |
