| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: flash and go; they were hull-down for us behind life's ocean,
and we but hailed their topsails on the line. Yet, out of
our great solitude of four and twenty mountain hours, we
thrilled to their momentary presence gauged and divined them,
loved and hated; and stood light-headed in that storm of
human electricity. Yes, like Piccadilly circus, this is also
one of life's crossing-places. Here I beheld one man,
already famous or infamous, a centre of pistol-shots: and
another who, if not yet known to rumour, will fill a column
of the Sunday paper when he comes to hang - a burly, thick-
set, powerful Chinese desperado, six long bristles upon
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: devoting to his toilet an amount of time never witnessed since the
creation of the world. Merely in the contemplation of his features in
the mirror, as he tried to communicate to them a succession of varying
expressions, was an hour spent. First of all he strove to make his
features assume an air of dignity and importance, and then an air of
humble, but faintly satirical, respect, and then an air of respect
guiltless of any alloy whatsoever. Next, he practised performing a
series of bows to his reflection, accompanied with certain murmurs
intended to bear a resemblance to a French phrase (though Chichikov
knew not a single word of the Gallic tongue). Lastly came the
performing of a series of what I might call "agreeable surprises," in
Dead Souls |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: "Who is she?"
"Her name is Sibyl Vane."
"Never heard of her."
"No one has. People will some day, however. She is a genius."
"My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex.
They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men
represent the triumph of mind over morals."
"Harry, how can you?"
"My dear Dorian, it is quite true. I am analysing women at present,
so I ought to know. The subject is not so abstruse as I thought it was.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
