| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: To one hurrying through by steam there was a certain exhilaration
in this spacious vacancy, this greatness of the air, this discovery
of the whole arch of heaven, this straight, unbroken, prison-line
of the horizon. Yet one could not but reflect upon the weariness
of those who passed by there in old days, at the foot's pace of
oxen, painfully urging their teams, and with no landmark but that
unattainable evening sun for which they steered, and which daily
fled them by an equal stride. They had nothing, it would seem, to
overtake; nothing by which to reckon their advance; no sight for
repose or for encouragement; but stage after stage, only the dead
green waste under foot, and the mocking, fugitive horizon. But the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Animal Farm by George Orwell: and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you,
comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might
be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this
straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your
eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And
above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so
that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument
must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the
animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the
prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no
Animal Farm |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: but is very destructive when it does come, and, if long continued,
the substance of the paper succumbs to the unhealthy influence and
rots and rots until all fibre disappears, and the paper is reduced
to a white decay which crumbles into powder when handled.
Few old libraries in England are now so thoroughly neglected
as they were thirty years ago. The state of many of our Collegiate
and Cathedral libraries was at that time simply appalling.
I could mention many instances, one especially, where a window having
been left broken for a long time, the ivy had pushed through and crept
over a row of books, each of which was worth hundreds of pounds.
In rainy weather the water was conducted, as by a pipe, along the tops
|
