| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: So he came at last to the stockyards, to the black volcanoes of smoke
and the lowing cattle and the stench. Then, seeing a crowded car,
his impatience got the better of him and he jumped aboard, hiding
behind another man, unnoticed by the conductor. In ten minutes more
he had reached his street, and home.
He was half running as he came round the corner. There was the house,
at any rate--and then suddenly he stopped and stared. What was the
matter with the house?
Jurgis looked twice, bewildered; then he glanced at the house next
door and at the one beyond--then at the saloon on the corner.
Yes, it was the right place, quite certainly--he had not made
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: seated, beside a good fire, at a table covered with appetizing dishes,
and, by unexpected good fortune, in company with two great artists who
treated him with kindly attention.
"Young man," said Porbus, observing that he was speechless, with his
eyes fixed on a picture, "do not look at that too long, or you will
fall into despair."
It was the Adam of Mabuse, painted by that wayward genius to enable
him to get out of the prison where his creditors had kept him so long.
The figure presented such fulness and force of reality that Nicolas
Poussin began to comprehend the meaning of the bewildering talk of the
old man. The latter looked at the picture with a satisfied but not
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: authenticated ones too, where the captain has been known for an
uncommonly critical moment or two, in a sudden squall say--to seize
hold of the nearest oarsman's hair, and hold on there like grim
death.
CHAPTER 54
The Town-Ho's Story.
(AS TOLD AT THE GOLDEN INN)
The Cape of Good Hope, and all the watery region round about there,
is much like some noted four corners of a great highway, where you
meet more travellers than in any other part.
It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another
Moby Dick |
