| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: about us. I am lecturing myself, but you also. To do our best is
one part, but to wash our hands smilingly of the consequence is the
next part, of any sensible virtue.
I have come, for the moment, to a pause in my moral works; for I
have many irons in the fire, and I wish to finish something to
bring coin before I can afford to go on with what I think
doubtfully to be a duty. It is a most difficult work; a touch of
the parson will drive off those I hope to influence; a touch of
overstrained laxity, besides disgusting, like a grimace, may do
harm. Nothing that I have ever seen yet speaks directly and
efficaciously to young men; and I do hope I may find the art and
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: caused. So, too, the forelock should be merely wetted; the long hairs
of which it is composed, without hindering the animal's vision, serve
to scare away from the eyes anything that might trouble them.
Providence, we must suppose,[6] bestowed these hairs upon the horse,
instead of the large ears which are given to the ass and the mule as a
protection to the eyes.[7] The tail, again, and mane should be washed,
the object being to help the hairs to grow--those in the tail so as to
allow the creature the greatest reach possible in brushing away
molesting objects,[8] and those of the neck in order that the rider
may have as free a grip as possible.
[6] Lit. "The gods, we must suppose, gave . . ."
On Horsemanship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: theft and so kangarooed into a slave-camp.
But in spite of all my precautions, I landed there after all.
The gang down at the flop house was dazzled by an employment
agent, who offered to ship them out into the rice country to work
on the levee for a dollar a day and cakes. The men were wild for
a square meal and the feel of a dollar in their jeans. So they
all shipped out to the river levee and I went along with the
gang.
As our train rattled over the trestles and through the cypress
swamps the desperate iron workers were singing:
"We'll work a hundred days,
|
