| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: during Napoleon's Moscow campaign and later on a fellow-officer
in the Polish Army, refrained from visiting his crony as the date
of the outbreak approached. My paternal grandfather's two sons
and his only daughter were all deeply involved in the
revolutionary work; he himself was of that type of Polish squire
whose only ideal of patriotic action was to "get into the saddle
and drive them out." But even he agreed that "dear Nicholas must
not be worried." All this considerate caution on the part of
friends, both conspirators and others, did not prevent Mr.
Nicholas B. being made to feel the misfortunes of that ill-omened
year.
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: caused every one to conceive a passion for experimenting with the
latest luxury; and to meet this want the French wine merchant opened a
new establishment in the shape of a restaurant as had never before
been heard of in the province--a restaurant where supper could be
procured on credit as regarded one-half, and for an unprecedentedly
low sum as regarded the other. This exactly suited both heads of
boards and clerks who were living in hope of being able some day to
resume their bribes-taking from suitors. There also developed a
tendency to compete in the matter of horses and liveried flunkeys;
with the result that despite the damp and snowy weather exceedingly
elegant turnouts took to parading backwards and forwards. Whence these
Dead Souls |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: the champagne that had been ordered for himself, ran, in his most
finished vein of childish madrigal: 'The Captain bows to you, my
love, across the table.' When the end was near and it was thought
best that Fleeming should no longer go home but sleep at
Merchiston, he broke his news to the Captain with some trepidation,
knowing that it carried sentence of death. 'Charming, charming -
charming arrangement,' was the Captain's only commentary. It was
the proper thing for a dying man, of Captain Jenkin's school of
manners, to make some expression of his spiritual state; nor did he
neglect the observance. With his usual abruptness, 'Fleeming,'
said he, 'I suppose you and I feel about all this as two Christian
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