| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: we pulled, we pulled, and the boat seemed to stand still,
as if bewitched within the circle of the sea horizon. I
remember the heat, the deluge of rain-squalls that kept
us baling for dear life (but filled our water-cask), and I
remember sixteen hours on end with a mouth dry as a
cinder and a steering-oar over the stern to keep my first
command head on to a breaking sea. I did not know how
good a man I was till then. I remember the drawn faces,
the dejected figures of my two men, and I remember my
youth and the feeling that will never come back any
more--the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: [19] "They are not famous but infamous"; "the bad fare as their name
suggests" (i.e. badly).
[20] "Recognisable for the worse."
[21] Or, "what with private extortionsand public peculation."
[22] {ton idioton}, "laymen," I suppose, as opposed to "professional"
lawyers or politicians.
[23] "What with their incapacity for hard work, their physique for
purposes of war is a mockery and a sham."
[24] Cf. Plat. "Soph."
[25] Or, "earns but an evil reputation in the world."
[26] "They are being bearded in their dens."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: eight; we were the oldest. The baby, one year old, and the next,
a toddler of three, mother had carried in her arms. But two boys,
Walter and David, four and six years old, had got lost in the
traffic. Mother took the rest of us to a hotel and locked us in a
room while she went out to search for the missing ones. For two
days she tramped the streets visiting police stations and making
inquiry everywhere. At night she would return to us and report
that she had found no trace of little Walter and David. To try to
picture the misery of those scenes is beyond me. I can only say
that the experience instilled in me a lasting terror. The fear of
being parted from my parents and from my brothers and sisters,
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