| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: this duplicity? I deny it. The truth consists in the genuineness
of the feeling, in the genuine recognition of the two men, so
similar and so different, as your two partners in the hazard of
life. Obviously, a humbug, thinking only of winning his little
race, would stand a chance of profiting by his artifices. Men,
professors or coal-heavers, are easily deceived; they even have an
extraordinary knack of lending themselves to deception, a sort of
curious and inexplicable propensity to allow themselves to be led
by the nose with their eyes open. But a ship is a creature which
we have brought into the world, as it were on purpose to keep us up
to the mark. In her handling a ship will not put up with a mere
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: offend. In a war of words, the tactics of the North American Indian.
REPENTANCE, n. The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. It
is usually manifest in a degree of reformation that is not
inconsistent with continuity of sin.
Desirous to avoid the pains of Hell,
You will repent and join the Church, Parnell?
How needless! -- Nick will keep you off the coals
And add you to the woes of other souls.
Jomater Abemy
REPLICA, n. A reproduction of a work of art, by the artist that made
the original. It is so called to distinguish it from a "copy," which
The Devil's Dictionary |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: some breakfast, and then we would like to have you row us across the
river."
The ferryman neither moved nor spoke. He sat in his doorway and
looked straight ahead. "I think he must be deaf and dumb," Cayke
whispered to her companion. Then she stood directly in front of the
ferryman, and putting her mouth close to his ear, she yelled as loudly
as she could, "Good evening!"
The ferryman scowled.
"Why do you yell at me, woman?" he asked.
"Can you hear what I say?" asked in her ordinary tone of voice.
"Of course," replied the man.
The Lost Princess of Oz |
