| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: spot, the boat we were going to relieve swam into our view
suddenly, on her way home, cutting black and sinister into the
wake of the moon under a sable wing, while to them our sail must
have been a vision of white and dazzling radiance. Without
altering the course a hair's-breadth we slipped by each other
within an oar's-length. A drawling sardonic hail came out of
her. Instantly, as if by magic, our dozing pilots got on their
feet in a body. An incredible babel of bantering shouts burst
out, a jocular, passionate, voluble chatter, which lasted till
the boats were stern to stern, theirs all bright now and with a
shining sail to our eyes, we turned all black to their vision,
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: the figure which it makes in Scottish song, was formed of a small
rod of iron, twisted or notched, which was placed
perpendicularly, starting out a little from the door, and bore a
small ring of the same metal, which an applicant for admittance
drew rapidly up and down the NICKS, so as to produce a grating
sound. Sometimes the rod was simply stretched across the
VIZZYING hole, a convenient aperture through which the porter
could take cognisance of the person applying; in which case it
acted also as a stanchion. These were almost all disused about
sixty years ago, when knockers were generally substituted as more
genteel. But knockers at that time did not long remain in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: shook her head. 'And aunt Maxwell is never going to leave off
hers,' persisted the naughty boy; but when he saw that his pertness
was seriously displeasing and painful to his aunt, he went and
silently put his arm round her neck, kissed her cheek, and withdrew
to the recess of one of the great bay-windows, where he quietly
amused himself with his dog, while Mrs. Maxwell gravely discussed
with me the interesting topics of the weather, the season, and the
roads. I considered her presence very useful as a check upon my
natural impulses - an antidote to those emotions of tumultuous
excitement which would otherwise have carried me away against my
reason and my will; but just then I felt the restraint almost
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
