| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: perverted, are more agreeable to us and have a greater power over us. Most
of us have experienced a sort of delight and feeling of curiosity when we
first came across or when we first used for ourselves a new word or phrase
or figure of speech.
There are associations of sound and of sense by which every word is linked
to every other. One letter harmonizes with another; every verb or noun
derives its meaning, not only from itself, but from the words with which it
is associated. Some reflection of them near or distant is embodied in it.
In any new use of a word all the existing uses of it have to be considered.
Upon these depends the question whether it will bear the proposed extension
of meaning or not. According to the famous expression of Luther, 'Words
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: pass away. March was to take Elizabeth to Hunsford. She had
not at first thought very seriously of going thither; but Charlotte,
she soon found, was depending on the plan and she gradually
learned to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as
greater certainty. Absence had increased her desire of seeing
Charlotte again, and weakened her disgust of Mr. Collins. There
was novelty in the scheme, and as, with such a mother and such
uncompanionable sisters, home could not be faultless, a little
change was not unwelcome for its own sake. The journey
would moreover give her a peep at Jane; and, in short, as the
time drew near, she would have been very sorry for any delay.
Pride and Prejudice |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: chest. I looked at the closed eyelids, and thought I detected
a quivering. Then the lids opened, shewing eyes which were grey,
calm, and alive, but still unintelligent and not even curious.
In a moment of fantastic whim I whispered questions to the reddening
ears; questions of other worlds of which the memory might still
be present. Subsequent terror drove them from my mind, but I think
the last one, which I repeated, was: "Where have you been?" I
do not yet know whether I was answered or not, for no sound came
from the well-shaped mouth; but I do know that at that moment
I firmly thought the thin lips moved silently, forming syllables
which I would have vocalised as "only now" if that phrase had
Herbert West: Reanimator |
