| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: off in the clutches of these birds, in the act of crossing some slope
or bare hillside. When they are bigger they have the hounds after them
to hunt them down and make away with them. The fleetest-footed would
appear to be those of the low marsh lands. The vagabond kind[31]
addicted to every sort of ground are difficult to hunt, for they know
the short cuts, running chiefly up steeps or across flats, over
inequalities unequally, and downhill scarcely at all.
[29] Or, "shifts her ground."
[30] Or, "in their terror not of dogs only, but of eagles, since up to
a year old they are liable to be seized by these birds of prey
while crossing some bottom or bare ground, while if bigger . . ."
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: although the several buildings of the former may often equal or surpass in
beauty those of the latter, yet when one observes their indiscriminate
juxtaposition, there a large one and here a small, and the consequent
crookedness and irregularity of the streets, one is disposed to allege
that chance rather than any human will guided by reason must have led to
such an arrangement. And if we consider that nevertheless there have been
at all times certain officers whose duty it was to see that private
buildings contributed to public ornament, the difficulty of reaching high
perfection with but the materials of others to operate on, will be readily
acknowledged. In the same way I fancied that those nations which, starting
from a semi-barbarous state and advancing to civilization by slow degrees,
Reason Discourse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: rather than any inherent dulness in him regarding human nature.
This, clearly perceived by Elfride, added poignancy to her self-
reproach, and she idolized him the more because of their
difference. Even the recent sight of Stephen's face and the sound
of his voice, which for a moment had stirred a chord or two of
ancient kindness, were unable to keep down the adoration re-
existent now that he was again out of view.
She had replied to Knight's question hastily, and immediately went
on to speak of indifferent subjects. After they had reached home
she was apart from him till dinner-time. When dinner was over,
and they were watching the dusk in the drawing-room, Knight
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
