| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: "One night during my accustomed visit to the neighbouring wood
where I collected my own food and brought home firing for my protectors,
I found on the ground a leathern portmanteau containing several articles
of dress and some books. I eagerly seized the prize and returned with it
to my hovel. Fortunately the books were written in the language,
the elements of which I had acquired at the cottage; they consisted
of Paradise Lost, a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and the Sorrows of Werter.
The possession of these treasures gave me extreme delight; I now continually
studied and exercised my mind upon these histories, whilst my friends were
employed in their ordinary occupations.
"I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books.
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: generations, mingled with scraps of very indifferent
gentlemanlike poetry, written in characters which I can scarcely
decipher, and which extol the charms of many a beauty of
Little Britain who has long, long since bloomed, faded, and
passed away. As I am an idle personage, with no apparent
occupation, and pay my bill regularly every week, I am looked
upon as the only independent gentleman of the neighborhood;
and, being curious to learn the internal state of a community so
apparently shut up within itself, I have managed to work my
way into all the concerns and secrets of the place.
Little Britain may truly be called the heart's core of the city;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: into the main hatch. The bright stream flashed in sun-
shine, fell into a layer of white crawling smoke, and van-
ished on the black surface of coal. Steam ascended
mingling with the smoke. We poured salt water as into
a barrel without a bottom. It was our fate to pump in
that ship, to pump out of her, to pump into her; and
after keeping water out of her to save ourselves from
being drowned, we frantically poured water into her to
save ourselves from being burnt.
"And she crawled on, do or die, in the serene weather.
The sky was a miracle of purity, a miracle of azure.
Youth |
