| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: nourishing the love of Spain in the little thing's heart as a
precious flower; and she died happy in the knowledge that the
fruitage of her patriotic labors was as rich as even she could
desire.
Cathy is a sufficiently good little scholar, for her nine years;
her mother taught her Spanish herself, and kept it always fresh
upon her ear and her tongue by hardly ever speaking with her in any
other tongue; her father was her English teacher, and talked with
her in that language almost exclusively; French has been her
everyday speech for more than seven years among her playmates here;
she has a good working use of governess - German and Italian. It
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: bows. A Landfall may be good or bad. You encompass the earth with
one particular spot of it in your eye. In all the devious tracings
the course of a sailing-ship leaves upon the white paper of a chart
she is always aiming for that one little spot - maybe a small
island in the ocean, a single headland upon the long coast of a
continent, a lighthouse on a bluff, or simply the peaked form of a
mountain like an ant-heap afloat upon the waters. But if you have
sighted it on the expected bearing, then that Landfall is good.
Fogs, snowstorms, gales thick with clouds and rain - those are the
enemies of good Landfalls.
II.
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: the creeks which lie between; and then turning east again come to
Harwich, on the utmost eastern point of this large country.
Harwich is a town so well known and so perfectly described by many
writers, I need say little of it. It is strong by situation, and
may be made more so by art. But it is many years since the
Government of England have had any occasion to fortify towns to the
landward; it is enough that the harbour or road, which is one of
the best and securest in England, is covered at the entrance by a
strong fort and a battery of guns to the seaward, just as at
Tilbury, and which sufficiently defend the mouth of the river. And
there is a particular felicity in this fortification, viz., that
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