| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: possible for any one to convict them of error. In this they seem to me to
be like a blind man, who, in order to fight on equal terms with a person
that sees, should have made him descend to the bottom of an intensely dark
cave: and I may say that such persons have an interest in my refraining
from publishing the principles of the philosophy of which I make use; for,
since these are of a kind the simplest and most evident, I should, by
publishing them, do much the same as if I were to throw open the windows,
and allow the light of day to enter the cave into which the combatants had
descended. But even superior men have no reason for any great anxiety to
know these principles, for if what they desire is to be able to speak of
all things, and to acquire a reputation for learning, they will gain their
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: mate, the only figure of the ship's afterguard, who comes bustling
forward at the cry of "All hands on deck!" He is the satrap of
that province in the autocratic realm of the ship, and more
personally responsible for anything that may happen there.
There, too, on the approach to the land, assisted by the boatswain
and the carpenter, he "gets the anchors over" with the men of his
own watch, whom he knows better than the others. There he sees the
cable ranged, the windlass disconnected, the compressors opened;
and there, after giving his own last order, "Stand clear of the
cable!" he waits attentive, in a silent ship that forges slowly
ahead towards her picked-out berth, for the sharp shout from aft,
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: suffered by my trustfulness; and was shipped off to be a slave by
the very man that (if I rightly understand) is your employer?"
All this while I had been gaining ground with Mr. Rankeillor, and
in proportion as I gained ground, gaining confidence. But at
this sally, which I made with something of a smile myself, he
fairly laughed aloud.
"No, no," said he, "it is not so bad as that. Fui, non sum. I
was indeed your uncle's man of business; but while you (imberbis
juvenis custode remoto) were gallivanting in the west, a good
deal of water has run under the bridges; and if your ears did not
sing, it was not for lack of being talked about. On the very day
Kidnapped |
