| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: But oft and often hath it come to pass,
And often still it must, that, even as showers
And rains o'er many regions fall, so too
Dart many thunderbolts at one same time.
Again, why never hurtles Jupiter
A bolt upon the lands nor pours abroad
Clap upon clap, when skies are cloudless all?
Or, say, doth he, so soon as ever the clouds
Have come thereunder, then into the same
Descend in person, that from thence he may
Near-by decide upon the stroke of shaft?
Of The Nature of Things |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: of that age being now extant. Nevertheless, I must confess
to a certain amount of mental disquietude and uneasiness when I
think of books worth 50,000 denarii--or, speaking roughly,
say L18,750,[1] of our modern money being made into bonfires.
What curious illustrations of early heathenism, of Devil worship,
of Serpent worship, of Sun worship, and other archaic forms
of religion; of early astrological and chemical lore,
derived from the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks;
what abundance of superstitious observances and what is now termed
"Folklore"; what riches, too, for the philological student,
did those many books contain, and how famous would the library
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: "Leave that to Clara," returned Northmour.
I could have struck him in the face for this coarse familiarity;
but I respected the truce, as, I am bound to say, did Northmour,
and so long as the danger continued not a cloud arose in our
relation. I bear him this testimony with the most unfeigned
satisfaction; nor am I without pride when I look back upon my own
behaviour. For surely no two men were ever left in a position so
invidious and irritating.
As soon as I had done eating, we proceeded to inspect the lower
floor. Window by window we tried the different supports, now and
then making an inconsiderable change; and the strokes of the hammer
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