| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: aft I could beat the other two. I had to wait for them.
Then we all had a look at the captain's chart, and, after
a sociable meal of hard bread and water, got our last
instructions. These were simple: steer north, and keep
together as much as possible. 'Be careful with that
jury rig, Marlow,' said the captain; and Mahon, as I
sailed proudly past his boat, wrinkled his curved nose
and hailed, 'You will sail that ship of yours under
water, if you don't look out, young fellow.' He was a
malicious old man--and may the deep sea where he sleeps
now rock him gently, rock him tenderly to the end of time!
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: would not abandon him. He gave a deep sigh, and keeping the
sackcloth over his head he got inside the sledge and lay down
in the place where his master had been.
But he could not get warm in the sledge either. At first he
shivered all over, then the shivering ceased and little by
little he began to lose consciousness. He did not know whether
he was dying or falling asleep, but felt equally prepared for
the one as for the other.
VIII
Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich, with his feet and the ends of the
reins, urged the horse on in the direction in which for some
Master and Man |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more
plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are
told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish
being a prolifick dyet, there are more children born in Roman
Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets
will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish
infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore
it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the
number of Papists among us.
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child
(in which list I reckon all cottagers, labourers, and four-fifths
A Modest Proposal |
