| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: to my mind a form more grandly religious nor more horribly repentant
than that of this man. You, who have a life-long experience of the
confessional, dear uncle, you may never, perhaps, have seen so awful a
remorse,--remorse sunk in the waves of prayer, the ceaseless
supplication of a mute despair. This fisherman, this mariner, this
hard, coarse Breton, was sublime through some hidden emotion. Had
those eyes wept? That hand, moulded for an unwrought statue, had it
struck? That ragged brow, where savage honor was imprinted, and on
which strength had left vestiges of the gentleness which is an
attribute of all true strength, that forehead furrowed with wrinkles,
was it in harmony with the heart within? Why was this man in the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: castle was visible from its top. So she stuck her head over an edge just as the
Frogman's head appeared over another edge, and both, being surprised,
kept still while they took a good look at one another.
Scraps recovered from her astonishment first, and bounding upward, she
turned a somersault and landed sitting down and facing the big
Frogman, who slowly advanced and sat opposite her. "Well met,
Stranger!" cried the Patchwork Girl with a whoop of laughter. "You
are quite the funniest individual I have seen in all my travels."
"Do you suppose I can be any funnier than you?" asked the Frogman,
gazing at her in wonder.
"I'm not funny to myself, you know," returned Scraps. "I wish I were.
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: again, we might choose Peter's defiance of the lions, when he
drew a circle round him on the ground with an arrow and dared
them to cross it; and though he waited for hours, with the other
boys and Wendy looking on breathlessly from trees, not one of
them dared to accept his challenge.
Which of these adventures shall we choose? The best way will
be to toss for it.
I have tossed, and the lagoon has won. This almost makes one
wish that the gulch or the cake or Tink's leaf had won. Of
course I could do it again, and make it best out of three;
however, perhaps fairest to stick to the lagoon.
Peter Pan |
