| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: "And the next day we were already in flight from the war that
covered the world.
"And all the rest was Flight--all the rest was Flight."
He mused darkly.
"How much was there of it?"
He made no answer.
"How many days?"
His face was white and drawn and his hands were clenched. He
took no heed of my curiosity.
I tried to draw him back to his story with questions.
"Where did you go?" I said.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: dearly bought at the Opera, what attention you would pay me, M. du
Bruel! I feel the most supreme contempt for men who boast that they
can love and grow careless and neglectful in little things as time
grows on. You are short and insignificant, you see, du Bruel; you love
to torment a woman; it is your only way of showing your strength. A
Napoleon is ready to be swayed by the woman he loves; he loses nothing
by it; but as for such as you, you believe that you are nothing
apparently, you do not wish to be ruled.--Five-and-thirty, my dear
boy,' she continued, turning to me, 'that is the clue to the riddle.--
"No," does he say again?--You know quite well that I am thirty-seven.
I am very sorry, but just ask your friends to dine at the /Rocher de
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: homeward-bound ship making for the Channel, and gazing ahead into
the gray and tormented waste, I have heard a weary sigh shape
itself into a studiously casual comment:
"Can't see very far in this weather."
And have made answer in the same low, perfunctory tone
"No, sir."
It would be merely the instinctive voicing of an ever-present
thought associated closely with the consciousness of the land
somewhere ahead and of the great speed of the ship. Fair wind,
fair wind! Who would dare to grumble at a fair wind? It was a
favour of the Western King, who rules masterfully the North
The Mirror of the Sea |
