| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: had passed, the first chill of our surprise soon changed into
a glow of curiosity. We sat late; it was the latest session
I have known in the old George. Each man, before we parted,
had his theory that he was bound to prove; and none of us had
any nearer business in this world than to track out the past
of our condemned companion, and surprise the secret that he
shared with the great London doctor. It is no great boast,
but I believe I was a better hand at worming out a story than
either of my fellows at the George; and perhaps there is now
no other man alive who could narrate to you the following
foul and unnatural events.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: greater facility in working her pump. The humours, if stagnant, in
a corpse, would not respond so readily to the action of the sucker;
they are more easily extracted from a live body, in which they move
about.
The Epeira, therefore, being a drinker of blood, moderates the
virulence of her sting, even with victims of appalling size, so
sure is she of her retiarian art. The long-legged Tryxalis, {17}
the corpulent Grey Locust, the largest of our Grasshoppers are
accepted without hesitation and sucked dry as soon as numbed.
Those giants, capable of making a hole in the net and passing
through it in their impetuous onrush, can be but rarely caught. I
The Life of the Spider |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: see--you were a student. We shall have--hardly any money."
"I don't care."
"Hardship and danger."
"With you!"
"And as for your people?"
"They don't count. That is the dreadful truth. This--all this
swamps them. They don't count, and I don't care."
Capes suddenly abandoned his attitude of meditative restraint.
"By Jove!" he broke out, "one tries to take a serious, sober
view. I don't quite know why. But this is a great lark, Ann
Veronica! This turns life into a glorious adventure!"
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