| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: struck her friend as pretty. "Do THEY have their flowers?"
"Oceans. And they're the most particular." Oh it was a wonderful
world. "You should see Lord Rye's."
"His flowers?"
"Yes, and his letters. He writes me pages on pages--with the most
adorable little drawings and plans. You should see his diagrams!"
CHAPTER VIII
The girl had in course of time every opportunity to inspect these
documents, and they a little disappointed her; but in the mean
while there had been more talk, and it had led to her saying, as if
her friend's guarantee of a life of elegance were not quite
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: pottering on deck in all the dignity of years, our white beards
falling into our laps. We were ever to be busied among paint-pots;
so that there should be no white fresher, and no green more emerald
than ours, in all the navy of the canals. There should be books in
the cabin, and tobacco-jars, and some old Burgundy as red as a
November sunset and as odorous as a violet in April. There should
be a flageolet, whence the CIGARETTE, with cunning touch, should
draw melting music under the stars; or perhaps, laying that aside,
upraise his voice - somewhat thinner than of yore, and with here
and there a quaver, or call it a natural grace-note - in rich and
solemn psalmody.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: the watery mass easily, and dissipated all colour, and I clearly
distinguished objects at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards.
Beyond that the tints darkened into fine gradations of ultramarine,
and faded into vague obscurity. Truly this water which surrounded
me was but another air denser than the terrestrial atmosphere,
but almost as transparent. Above me was the calm surface of the sea.
We were walking on fine, even sand, not wrinkled, as on a flat shore,
which retains the impression of the billows. This dazzling carpet,
really a reflector, repelled the rays of the sun with wonderful intensity,
which accounted for the vibration which penetrated every atom of liquid.
Shall I be believed when I say that, at the depth of thirty feet,
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
