| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: long drunken of this cup, and its bitterness is now
sweetened to see that thou dost partake it.---Grind
not thy teeth, Front-de-Buf---roll not thine eyes
---clench not thine hand, nor shake it at me with that
gesture of menace!---The hand which, like that of
thy renowned ancestor who gained thy name, could
have broken with one stroke the skull of a mountain-bull,
is now unnerved and powerless as mine
own!''
``Vile murderous hag!'' replied Front-de-Buf;
``detestable screech-owl! it is then thou who art
Ivanhoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: stitch I had, and chewed a bullet for. He rode upon a horse,
with feathers in his hat; but it was him that had the shots
and took the game home. Did I complain? Not I. I knew my
station. What did I ask, but just the chance to live and die
honest? Nance Holdaway, don't let them deny it to me - don't
let them do it. I've been as poor as Job, and as honest as
the day, but now, my girl, you mark these words of mine, I'm
getting tired of it.'
'I wouldn't say such words, at least,' said Nance.
'You wouldn't?' said the old man grimly. 'Well, and did I
when I was your age? Wait till your back's broke and your
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: his ship out there rolling on the grey seas off an iron-bound
coast, at the very moment of its flight.
He perceived that the six brass buttons of Tom's jacket had been
cut off. He shuddered at the notion of the two miserable and
repulsive witches busying themselves ghoulishly about the
defenceless body of his friend. Cut off. Perhaps with the same
knife which . . . The head of one trembled; the other was bent
double, and their eyes were red and bleared, their infamous claws
unsteady. . . It must have been in this very room too, for Tom
could not have been killed in the open and brought in here
afterwards. Of that Byrne was certain. Yet those devilish crones
Within the Tides |
