| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: shadow of Koh-ring as if I had shouted in a mountain gorge.
And then I watched the land intently. In that smooth water
and light wind it was impossible to feel the ship coming-to. No!
I could not feel her. And my second self was making now ready
to ship out and lower himself overboard. Perhaps he was gone
already . . . ?
The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to pivot away
from the ship's side silently. And now I forgot the secret stranger ready
to depart, and remembered only that I was a total stranger to the ship.
I did not know her. Would she do it? How was she to be handled?
I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly. She was perhaps stopped,
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: Next morning, Thorpe rose earlier than ever--with the
impression of a peculiarly restless and uncomfortable night
behind him. It was not until he had shaved and dressed
that he noted the altered character of the air outside.
Although it was not fully daylight yet, he could see
the outlines of the trees and vinerows on the big,
snow-clad hill, which monopolized the prospect from his window,
all sharp and clear cut, as if he were looking at them
through an opera-glass. He went at once to the sitting-room,
and thrust the curtains aside from one of the windows.
A miracle had been wrought in the night. The sky
The Market-Place |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: persuaded me of its truth; and this led me to fear lest among my own
doctrines likewise some one might be found in which I had departed from
the truth, notwithstanding the great care I have always taken not to
accord belief to new opinions of which I had not the most certain
demonstrations, and not to give expression to aught that might tend to the
hurt of any one. This has been sufficient to make me alter my purpose of
publishing them; for although the reasons by which I had been induced to
take this resolution were very strong, yet my inclination, which has
always been hostile to writing books, enabled me immediately to discover
other considerations sufficient to excuse me for not undertaking the task.
And these reasons, on one side and the other, are such, that not only is
Reason Discourse |
