| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: other Lycosae. Many, a deal too many for my patience, stubbornly
refuse to dart from their haunts in order to attack the Carpenter-
bee. The formidable quarry is too much for their daring. Shall
not hunger, which brings the wolf from the wood, also bring the
Tarantula out of her hole? Two, apparently more famished than the
rest, do at last pounce upon the Bee and repeat the scene of murder
before my eyes. The prey, again bitten in the neck, exclusively in
the neck, dies on the instant. Three murders, perpetrated in my
presence under identical conditions, represent the fruits of my
experiment pursued, on two occasions, from eight o'clock in the
morning until twelve midday.
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: detached from sense are reconstructed in science. They and not the mere
impressions of sense are the truth of the world in which we live; and (as
an argument to those who will only believe 'what they can hold in their
hands') we may further observe that they are the source of our power over
it. To say that the outward sense is stronger than the inward is like
saying that the arm of the workman is stronger than the constructing or
directing mind.
Returning to the senses we may briefly consider two questions--first their
relation to the mind, secondly, their relation to outward objects:--
1. The senses are not merely 'holes set in a wooden horse' (Theaet.), but
instruments of the mind with which they are organically connected. There
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: not known that he lived in so wild a region. There was
something uncanny in the revelation.
By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished. The
thought of his wife and children urged him on. At last he
found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right
direction. It was as wide and straight as a city street, yet
it seemed untraveled. No fields bordered it, no dwelling
anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a dog suggested
human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed a
straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a
point, like a diagram in a lesson in perspective. Overhead,
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
