| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: But that beast did ensue and the hunter it threw
O'er the top of a palm that adjacent grew;
And he said as he flew: "It is well I withdrew
Ere, losing my temper, I wickedly slew
That really meritorious gnu."
Jarn Leffer
GOOD, adj. Sensible, madam, to the worth of this present writer.
Alive, sir, to the advantages of letting him alone.
GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by some
occult process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with various
degrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional character,
The Devil's Dictionary |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: at the foot of these large crags. One or two half-savage herdsmen
in sheepskin kilts, &c., ask for cigars; partridges whirr up on
either side of us; pigeons coo and nightingales sing amongst the
blooming oleander. We get six sheep and many fowls, too, from the
priest of the small village; and then run back to Spartivento and
make preparations for the morning.
'June 18.
'The big cable is stubborn and will not behave like his smaller
brother. The gear employed to take him off the drum is not strong
enough; he gets slack on the drum and plays the mischief. Luckily
for my own conscience, the gear I had wanted was negatived by Mr.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: man takes hold of a bar of iron,[5] he lifts it as a whole. The other
flexibly constructed type acts like a chain (only the single point at
which you hold it remains stiff, the rest hangs loose); and while
perpetually hunting for the portion which escapes him, he lets the
mouthpiece go from his bars.[6] For this reason the rings are hung in
the middle from the two axles,[7] so that while feeling for them with
his tongue and teeth he may neglect to take the bit up against his
jaws.
[5] Or, "poker," as we might say; lit. "spit."
[6] Schneid. cf. Eur. "Hippol." 1223.
[7] See Morgan, note ad loc. Berenger (i. 261) notes: "We have a small
On Horsemanship |
